Coming to Terms
by ThanosofTitan
Summary: When college student Junji Takeda buys his first persocom, he ends up getting more than he bargained for. Prequel to Rebellion, but you don't need to read that first. Reviews are what keep me writing!
1. Chapter 1

"Look what just arrived in the mail!" Junji Takeda grinned with delight, as he showed off the check to his dorm mate Hitomi. Even though she was his age, the black-haired girl was often mistaken for a teenager. Her propensity for wearing t-shirts with bright, sparkling company mottos and logos on them didn't help in that regard. Still, she was a surprisingly mature and collected woman, if you got past her appearance.

"Wow, that's a lot of money," she said, impressed. "What's the occasion?"

"It's for a persocom!" Junji responded, beaming. "I finally wore down my parents - convinced them that college students nowadays simply can't get by without one."

"But half the students in our dorm don't have-"

"Sssh!" Junji interrupted her. "Don't spread it around, will you?"

She giggled, amused at her fellow student's antics.

"So are you going to purchase online?" Hitomi asked.

"Nah, it will take too long to arrive. I'm going to the mall right now."

"But you first felt the need to come by my room and brag, right?" Hitomi asked sarcastically.

"Pretty much," Junji replied. His dorm mate laughed again. The man was simply incorrigible.

"Make sure to introduce me to her when you come back," she said. Hitomi, never having owned a persocom herself, was always interested in meeting them.

"What makes you so sure it will be a her?" Junji asked slyly. Hitomi blushed.

"Well - it's just that... uh, straight guys usually..."

"Just kidding!" Junji cut her off, laughing again. This time Hitomi looked a little peeved, but got over it quickly as she bid Junji goodbye.

As she walked over to the window and watched him drive off, she sighed. Junji was so lucky to have a rich family. Well, maybe not rich, exactly, but brushing the very top of upper middle-class. Hitomi's parents had barely managed to raise enough funds for her tuition, and they certainly wouldn't spring to buy her a persocom, even a laptop. Her part - time job as a waitress also didn't pay nearly enough - she had long resigned herself to the fact that she would have to wait until she graduated to even think about getting her own 'com. Which was a shame, really, because ever since persocoms had first become widespread a few years ago, she had been fascinated with them. She smiled slightly, thinking that at least her list of 'com - owning friends was about to increase by one.

* * *

Junji walked through the mall, making a beeline towards the largest persocom shop after cashing his check. As he passed the rows of stores and kiosks, he noticed a lot of people with their 'coms. One couple, in particular, were even holding hands.

'That's kind of creepy,' Junji thought to himself as he passed them. 'I mean, it's just a machine...'

As he finally reached his destination, he paused a minute to admire the display in the front window. There were dozens of persocoms, both male and female, with a veritable rainbow of hair and eye colors, their statures ranging from child-sized to over 2 meters tall. They all looked so immaculate, standing in their display cases like incredibly realistic mannequins.

Walking inside, he was immediately greeted by a young woman wearing a company nametag.

"Hello sir, are you looking to make a purchase today?" She asked, the beginning of what was obviously a rehearsed speech.

"As a matter of fact, I am," Junji replied, still overcome with excitement.

"Excellent. Is there any specific model you're looking for?"

"Nah, I just need something to help me clean my dorm room, do some shopping and cooking, keep track of my finances, help me organize my assignments, stuff like that."

"So I take it you're looking for a full - size model instead of a laptop," the saleswoman concluded. "Follow me, I'll show you some options and you can pick the one you like."

Junji did as she said, as they walked towards the back of the store. He headed over to inspect a white-haired 'com that had caught his eye. She was almost a full head shorter than him, but clearly had an adult figure, and ears that reminded him of feathery wings. He moved to inspect the technical data on the display beside her.

Truth be told, Junji Takeda was not a computer expert. He wasn't clueless or anything, and knew most the basics, but he had never owned a persocom before and wanted to make sure he bought a good one.

The saleswoman came up behind him, noticing his fixation.

"This is the PCN model NQ17 '_Aurora_'," she explained. "An excellent choice, if I do say so myself."

"Heh, so her name is Aurora-chan?" Junji asked, turning around to face the employee.

"Not necessarily, you can give her any name you want if you purchase her. Is this your first time buying a persocom?" The woman asked.

"Yeah," Junji responded, a bit annoyed he had blundered into revealing that information. If she knew that he was inexperienced she might try to scam him. He quickly tried to change the subject. "Anyway, what does this stat here mean-"

He was interrupted by the sound of several heavy carts being wheeled out of a back room in the store.

"Oh, looks like they're unpacking our latest shipment," the saleswoman said, as the workers began moving the large, transparent persocom boxes off the carts and stacking them on the shelves. "We were due to get a few new models in today."

"Nice," Junji commented, walking closer to the carts to get a better look. Suddenly his eyes were ensnared by a particular 'com in the new shipment, with long green hair and pointed, elf-like ears.

"What's this one?" He asked with interest, approaching the shelf that the persocom had just been unloaded onto.

"It's the newest Reishinka Industries model," one of the workers answered. "Her system specs are top-notch, and she comes with a lot of useful software pre-installed. It'll cost you an arm and a leg, though."

"How much for her?" Junji immediately asked.

The saleswoman, who had been observing the conversation, took out a digital scanner and read the barcode on the persocom's box. As she told Junji the price, his face paled.

That was - he quickly did the math in his head - over 15% more than the amount of cash he had received from his parents! And he had been expecting to walk away with a good amount of leftover money too after he made his purchase.

Well he shouldn't have been surprised, after all - it was Reishinka. They were known as a competitor to PCN, although whereas PCN focused more on making average, affordable 'coms, Reishinka was known to build expensive, high - end models. Their primary clientele was those who wanted high-performance machines but lacked the knowhow and experience to build their own custom jobs. Junji looked at the beautiful green-haired 'com again. He realized he likely wouldn't need most of the extra features she undoubtedly had, but there was just something about her that convinced him she was the one he wanted.

'Oh well, I guess I'll just have to work overtime and cut down on expenses for the next several months,' he thought, as he finally made his purchase.

* * *

When he arrived back at the dorm, he left the 'com in the car and quickly scouted out the hallways. Luckily, Hitomi was nowhere in sight - he knew that if she spotted him carrying the 2 - meter - plus box down the hall she would hold him up for at least half an hour, asking questions and making a fuss over the persocom.

He ran back to the car and did his best to pull the heavy container to his door as quickly as possible. He managed to do it in only about 5 minutes, at the expense of his aching muscles.

After resting for a few minutes, he finally decided to open it. Inside, he found several cables, adapters, and a thick manual along with the 'com itself. With significant effort, he slung her over his shoulder and managed to carry her over to his bed, where he dropped her on the covers.

"I'm still amazed at how realistic these things are," he said to himself, looking at his new purchase. "If it wasn't for those ears, I'd think she was a real girl, just sleeping."

Junji continued to look at her, again reflecting on her beauty. Her long, light-green hair draped gracefully down past her shoulders, and the elegant dress she wore made her look like some kind of elven princess from a fantasy kingdom. He also began to notice how well-sculpted certain parts of her body were... for a brief moment he half-entertained the thought of feeling her up while she lay there deactivated.

'Wait, what the hell am I thinking?' He quickly changed his mind. 'I'm not some kind of pervert - besides, it's just a freaking computer!'

Instead, Junji reached down and flipped her over so her face was pointing upward, and started feeling around behind her right ear for her activation switch.

"Let's wake you up, shall we?"

Eventually, he found it, and heard a distinct _click_ as the button was depressed. For a few seconds, all that happened was a growing whirring sound, which abated as she opened her eyes and sat up facing him.

"Greetings. Are you my master?" She asked, in a light, inquisitive tone of voice.

"Um, yes," he said, slightly surprised by her quick response but soon adjusting. "I just bought you. My name is Junji Takeda."

"Pleased to meet you, Junji-sama" she said, standing up and bowing. "Please recite confirmation code."

"Huh?" He said, confused by this request.

"A persocom confirmation code is a sequence of alphanumeric characters used to confirm registration of a new persocom, in order to prevent theft and illegal duplication," the 'com replied, as if reading out of a dictionary. "Assuming you purchased me legally, my confirmation code should be listed on the last page of my owner's manual."

"Oh! Hold on a second," Junji said, as he went back to the couch where he had left the book. Walking back over to the humanoid computer, who was watching him with patience, he opened the book to the last page and began reading.

"Confirmation code... A A two four seven nine nine five five five six nine S three five nine O L eight eight", he finished. The girl closed her eyes for a second, as if in thought, and then spoke.

"Confirmation code accepted. You are now registered as my owner, Master Junji."

"Excellent," the young man said, putting down the manual. He then stared at the persocom for a few seconds, squinting a bit.

"Is there something wrong?" She asked.

"It's just that - well, you need a name, don't you?" He replied. Junji had never really anthropomorphized persocoms the way Hitomi and some others did, but he still recognized the necessity of a name, as it would make identification and communication much easier.

"Yes. Would you like to name me, Master Junji?" She said.

"Hmm..." he thought, looking at her. At first he considered exotic names befitting her elven appearance, like Nellethiel. He quickly dismissed that line of thought, however, feeling it would seem too pretentious. Besides, even though Junji was a student of languages, all of those "L"s would be hard for most of his Japanese countrymen to pronounce.

"Master Junji?" The 'com asked. If he didn't know any better he would think he heard a hint of impatience in her voice.

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking, give me a minute here!" He said, continuing to rack his brain for a good name.

"Of course, Master Junji," she responded, sitting back down on the bed.

He looked at her again, but was drawing a blank. Then, finally, it hit him. The name of a girl he had had a slight fancy for back in primary school seemed to fit.

"Your name is... Minako," he said.

She stood up and looked him in the eyes. "Minako..." her face suddenly burst into a huge smile. "I like it! Thank you, Master Junji!"

**Author's Note: Here it is, the first chapter. Yes, this is a prequel to _Rebellion_, but you don't need to read that first to understand this. For those of you familiar with Junji and Minako from that story, however, you've probably noticed that they're a lot different here. Well, that's only to be expected, as this story takes place some 12 years before _Rebellion_. As it continues, hopefully I'll be able to convey how the characters transformed into the versions you know. Please review and tell me what you think of the first chapter!**


	2. Chapter 2

'I guess she must have been programmed to be all _genki_ like that,' Junji thought, regarding the persocom's enthusiastic reaction to her new name. 'Well, if it gets too annoying I can look up how to change the personality settings later.'

"Okay Minako, time to put you to work," he said as he turned around and headed towards the thin partition separating his bedroom area and miniature kitchen from the dorm entry room. "Follow me."

"Yes, Master Junji," The green-haired 'com said obediently as she walked behind him.

The college student sat down on a small couch behind a wooden table and pressed a button on an old, worn - looking computer terminal. A panel slid out, from which he grabbed a small data disk.

"You have a drive for these?" He asked the 'com, as he showed her the device.

"Of course," she responded, turning around so that she faced away from him. A small, rectangular port silently slid out of the back of her neck, containing a circular depression for the disk.

'Wow,' Junji thought, observing this feature. 'I didn't see a seam or anything on her skin to indicate that was there before it opened. These Reishinka guys certainly didn't skimp on the detail.'

He gently pressed the disk into the receptacle, and it closed as soon as he moved his hand away, again seeming to meld so perfectly into her skin that you could never have known it was there. Minako turned around to face him once again.

"Now hook up to the terminal and display the text file on that disk titled _dksp20251_," Junji instructed. Minako reached behind her right ear and pulled out a cable, plugging it into a port on the terminal. The screen immediately flashed to life, showing a large amount of black, single-spaced text on a white background.

"This is an uncompleted paper I'm working on for my psychology course. I figured I would dictate the rest to you, as I've been doing so much typing lately I'm worried I'm getting carpal tunnel syndrome."

Upon hearing this, Minako's calm demeanor changed, and her face suddenly took on a worried look.

"Would you like me to run my medical diagnostic program, Master Junji?" She asked, starting to lean down to examine his hands. He pulled them away.

"Minako, that was just a joke," he said, looking a bit surprised by her reaction.

"Oh," she said, standing back up. "I see." He might have imagined it, but he thought he saw a look of relief on her face.

"Anyway, are you ready to take dictation?"

"Yes," the persocom responded. "But first, my text correction software has identified 27 spelling and 14 grammar errors in the document. Would you like me to fix them?"

"Let me see first," Junji replied. He had enough experience with automated spell checking programs to know that they often made errors and gave false positives.

Minako nodded, and parts of the text on the screen suddenly became highlighted in red. Using the mouse to scroll up and down through the document, he didn't find anything amiss with Minako's corrections, although he was a bit embarassed that he had made so many obvious mistakes.

'Must be the lack of sleep,' he thought, as he nodded to Minako, and the red highlights were eliminated as the fixes were made.

"I am ready to receive dictation now," the 'com said, looking at Junji as he sat on the couch.

He grabbed his research materials from the table drawer and began speaking, making sure to indicate paragraph breaks, section headers, footnotes, and such. As he spoke, the words appeared on the screen. After almost an hour of research, thought, and dictation, Junji was impressed that, as far as he could see, Minako hadn't made a single mistake so far. The more primitive speech recognition programs he had worked with in the past would always require him to constantly go back and correct a wrong interpretation at least once every few sentences. He suddenly decided to test her.

As he spoke, without changing his inflection or pace, he stopped his dictation and instead said:

"Minako, I'm starting to get thirsty. Would you get me a glass of water?"

On the screen, the text read:

**The metacognitive skills of subjects in the Dunning-Kruger study demonstrated anomalous results in part due to the psychological phenomenon known as Minako I'm**

Before he was even finished making his request, however, the last two words erased themselves.

"Of course, Master Junji" the persocom said, bowing slightly before she left towards the kitchen area.

'She catches her mistakes quickly. No wonder persocoms are considered so useful,' he thought. When she returned with the water, Junji took a few sips and then started dictating again.

About half an hour later, he decided to perform a followup test, this time interrupting himself to pronounce "I'm a bit hungry too. There's some pasta in a bowl in the fridge, could you warm it up in the microwave for me?"

"Right away, master," Minako replied, leaving once again to the kitchen. Junji noticed that this time the words had stopped immediately at the point where he stopped dictating, not transcribing any of his request.

'She learns from her mistakes too. Impressive.' He thought.

When she returned with the pasta, he took a break to eat. Seeing that her services were not required at the moment, Minako unplugged herself from the terminal and surprised Junji by sitting down on the couch next to him.

He shifted a bit uncomfortably, causing the 'com to look at him with a confused expression.

"Am I disturbing you, master Junji? Do you want me to leave?"

"What? No, it's... fine, Minako. Just a little unexpected, that's all."

She smiled warmly at him. Junji noticed that the feel of her shoulder leaning against him was indistinguishable from that of a human being. Deciding to test this further, he wrapped his arm around her other shoulder, but still felt no obvious indication she was a machine.

Minako seemed to take this as an indication to rest her head on Junji's lap, causing him to start blushing bright red.

'What are you getting so embarassed about?' He asked himself. 'It's just a computer!' Still, he couldn't deny that the feeling was pleasant. With a hint of nervousness in his voice, the college student spoke up.

"Okay, I'm ready to resume dictating the paper." Minako sat up, taking the cable back out from behind her ear and plugging it into the terminal again as she got up and stood next to the table.

After a few more hours, they had finally finished.

"There, that went a lot faster than it would if I had been typing it. Now save the file and give me the disk."

Instead of complying immediately, Minako raised her right index finger and said "Before I do that, may I make a few suggestions?"

"Suggestions?" Junji repeated, taken aback by this question. Had she been programmed to do this?

"Yes," she said, the screen scrolling up to and highlighting a paragraph near the beginning of the text file. "First of all, the wording in this section seems off. Perhaps this would flow more naturally." As she spoke, the paragraph changed, rephrasing the sentence into a form which, Junji did have to admit, sounded much better.

"Seems okay to me," he said, as the green-haired 'com smiled in response. "Is that it?"

"No, I have 12 other suggested modifications," she spoke. Junji was also beginning to notice that when he had first activated her, her voice had been mostly somewhat monotone, but now she was beginning to sound more human.

He reviewed her suggestions one-by-one, which included things such as rephrasing sentences to sound more natural, removal of colloquialisms and informal language to make the paper sound more clinical, correcting several citations and datapoints (which he supposed she must have gained knowledge of via her wireless internet connection), and even at one point suggesting an alternate interpretation of a famous psychology text. Junji decided to keep that one the way he had originally written it, though.

"Document saved." She said, after they had finished. As she opened her neck drive and handed the disk to him, Junji spoke up.

"That was pretty impressive. What programs were you using to do that?"

Minako's expression suddenly became disconcerted, as if she was trying to remember something but failing to do so.

"I...I'm not sure," she said.

"You're not aware of the programs running on your own hard drive?" He asked her, now looking a bit perplexed himself.

Minako bowed her head in apparent shame, looking down towards the floor. "I'm sorry, master Junji. I was just making suggestions based on my... understanding and... research of the material, I-I suppose. I was not running any specific literary analysis programs at the time. If you like, I will perform a level one self-diagnostic to try to detect any errors in my system."

"That would probably be a good idea," he answered. Minako suddenly froze upright, her face taking on a blank expression as streaks of light began playing across her eyes. "Minako? Are you alright?" Junji asked.

She took a second or two to respond. "Yes, master Junji. I am currently running a full intensity self-diagnostic program. Estimated time of completion: fifteen minutes and thirty-one seconds." He noticed that her voice had become much more monotone than before.

'Damn, I hope she's not defective or something. It would suck to have to return her just after I bought her.' Junji thought, as he put away the disk. Just then, he heard a knock on the door.

* * *

Looking through the peephole, he instantly recognized Hitomi.

"Hey Junji-kun, I just got back from seeing a movie. Did you get your new persocom yet?"

"Yeah..." He replied, not sounding very enthusiastic.

"Well can I come in and see her?"

"I don't think now is a very good time, Hitomi-san," Junji responded, not wanting to have to deal with his dorm mate when he was facing a very strong possibility that his 'com was broken.

"Why not?" Hitomi asked, in a mischevious tone of voice. "Are you doing naughty things with her?"

"What? No! Of course not!" Junji yelled, indignant at this accusation. Hitomi just laughed.

"Come on, Junji-kun, I won't take up too much of your time."

"Okay, fine," he relented, unlocking the door and letting Hitomi in. She immediately spotted the green-haired persocom standing next to the table.

"Wow, she's tall!" Hitomi exclaimed, running over to get a closer look. "Cute, too," the black-haired girl said, fondling one of Minako's pointed ears.

"Leave her alone, she's running some kind of diagnostic now," Junji explained, gently easing Hitomi away from the seemingly oblivious 'com.

"Why, is there something wrong with her?" Hitomi asked, looking concerned.

"That's just it - I don't know. I was using her to help write my psychology paper, when she started offering all of these writing suggestions, but she couldn't tell me what program she was using to generate them."

"Were the suggestions any good?"

"Yeah, actually, they were really good. Oddly intuitive too, not like something I would expect a computer to come up with."

"Maybe she was just making use of her imagination and creativity," Hitomi replied, smiling. Junji rolled his eyes at her.

"Haven't you outgrown those silly jokes?" He asked. "You know persocoms only act according to their programming."

"How would you know? You've never owned one before," she responded, still smirking.

"Yeah, well you haven't either, and you still don't," he countered.

"Way to rub it in," she said, looking a bit sad.

"Hey, hey, I didn't mean it like that," he said, touching Hitomi's shoulder to comfort her. "Tell you what, Minako's diagnostic shouldn't take much longer, and then I can introduce you to her."

"Great!" His fellow student exclaimed, immediately perking up. Junji couldn't help but wonder if the whole sad act just a second ago hadn't been just a trick to get him to let her stay.

"So, you named her Minako? That's cute," Hitomi said, walking over again to inspect the green-haired persocom.

"Well I had to name her something. That just came into my head." Of course Junji wasn't going to tell her that Minako had been named after a girl he used to have a crush on, that would just lead to more of her endless teasing.

"So, do you want something to eat or drink?" He asked her.

"Nah, I had a jumbo popcorn and soda at the movie theater. I'm full."

Junji laughed. "You're going to ruin you figure if you keep eating like that."

"Yeah, I guess you would know," Hitomi replied, pointing at Junji's slightly protruding belly.

"Hey, I eat fine! I just don't get enough exercise!" He protested. They both burst out laughing.

After a few more minutes of idle chat, Minako finally spoke.

"**Diagnostic completed. CPU and all subprocessors running at 99.87% efficiency. Memory functioning at 98.99% efficiency. Physical systems operating within optimal parameters. No errors detected on disc drives. Internet connection functioning at 150tb/s, within optimal parameters. No viruses, trojans, or rootkits detected. No other errors detected.**"

She turned to look at Hitomi, immediately switching from her monotone computer voice into the much more humanlike inflection she had been using before. "Who is this?"

"Hi, my name's Hitomi Arakaki," she said, making no effort to hide her enthusiasm. "I live in the dorm room across the hall. Junji is my friend."

"Pleased to meet you, Arakaki-sama," Minako said, bowing.

"Arakaki-sama? That's way too formal, just call me Hitomi-chan!" The black-haired girl said, inviting Minako to sit down on the couch next to her.

"Okay, Hitomi-chan," the persocom responded, taking the offered seat. "My name is-"

"Minako-chan, I know. Junji told me." Hitomi cut her off. "What model are you?"

"I am a Reishinka Industries CZ-7 advanced home assistant persocom," she replied, smiling. To Junji it almost seemed as if she was happy that Hitomi was showing so much interest in her.

"Reishinka, eh?" Hitomi whistled. "She must have cost a fortune!"

"Well, the price was pretty steep," Junji admitted. "I had to use quite a bit more than what was in the check."

"Why? Do you really need such a top-of-the-line 'com just to clean your dorm room and help with your coursework?"

"Well, no, but when I saw her in the store, for some reason I just knew I had to buy her," Junji said. He quickly cursed inwardly, realizing that Hitomi would deliberately misunderstand what he meant.

"You mean you fell in love with her?" She asked, in that teasing tone of voice again.

"Okay, that's it, you're out of here," Junji answered in a dry voice, pointing towards the door.

"Oh, come on, I was just kidding, Junji-kun," Hitomi objected, as she stood up.

"I know but it's getting late anyway and I have classes early in the morning," he explained.

"Fine, fine," Hitomi said, disappointment obvious in her voice as she headed towards the hallway. "See you tomorrow. You too, Minako-chan!"

Junji waved goodbye, with Minako quickly imitating him. After Hitomi had left, Junji sat back down on the couch, sighing.

"That girl is such a troublemaker," he muttered to himself.

"Master Junji?" Minako asked, standing over him.

"Hmm? What is it?" He replied, noticing a slightly concerned expression on her face.

"What did Hitomi-chan mean when she said you fell in love with me?"

This question took Junji by surprise. "Well - it was a joke, like she said. We're good friends, we like to tease each other like that. Of course I wouldn't fall in love with a persocom, that would be ridiculous."

"Why?" Minako asked, genuine curiosity on her face.

"What-what do you mean, _why?_" Junji responded, now starting to blush a bit. "Persocoms aren't people, they're objects. Machines, built to peform tasks according to their programming. Having feelings for one would be pointless, as they can't return them. You might as well fall in love with a toaster or a TV."

"I see," said Minako, looking downcast again.

"But you should know all of this already, shouldn't you?" Junji continued. "After all, you have all of that software installed, and you can access the internet, you can look up information on persocoms and what their acceptable roles are in society."

"Yes, but..."

"But what?"

"Nothing, master Junji." She answered, turning away from him. He began to wonder if the diagnostic had been wrong and she was malfunctioning after all. Well, at least she had been doing the work he had set for her, so he guessed there was no reason to complain. Speaking of that...

"Minako, I'm going to bed soon. Get the shower water running and then take a look at my class schedule on the refridgerator door. I'm bringing you to school with me tomorrow."

"Really?" She asked, her attitude now changing to one of excitement. "I'm looking forward to it, master Junji!"

Junji chuckled. Minako was certainly not what he had expected, and while he still had his suspicions that there might be something wrong with her, she was certainly an interesting one.

**Author's Note: Hope you liked the second chapter. If you want an idea of what Minako looks like, there is a link on my profile.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: This chapter features a bit more adult content and language than usual. Nothing explicit or deserving of an M rating, just a slight warning.**

"Master Junji?"

"Ugh..."

"Master Junji, it's time to wake up!"

Junji slowly opened his eyes, and immediately gasped, startled by the sight of Minako's face mere inches from his own.

"Master Junji?" She asked again, slightly confused by his reaction.

Junji groaned, pulling himself upright with effort. "What time is it?" He asked groggily.

"Seven Twenty-Five AM and 13.6 seconds," the green-haired persocom answered immediately. "I studied your schedule as you requested and determined that waking you up now would give you plenty of time to get ready and get to your classes on time."

"Maybe a bit too much time," Junji replied, laying his head back down on the pillow. "I wasn't planning to wake up for at least another hour."

Minako's face fell. "I'm sorry, Master Junji. Should I come back again an hour from now?"

"No," The boy said, sighing as he slowly sat up again. "Now that I'm awake, I doubt I'll be able to get any more sleep. Wait, what are you wearing?"

Minako looked down at her clothes. She had on a pair of casual jeans and a white t-shirt with a Kyoto University logo. "I found these in your closet last night and decided to try them on. Do you think they look good on me?"

Junji blushed a bit at this question - he had to admit, looking at her now, that his clothes certainly did accentuate her perfect figure. "Yeah, y-you look fine," was all he managed to get out, however. Minako giggled a bit.

"I'll go make you breakfast while you take your shower," she said, as she turned and headed towards the kitchen area.

* * *

Once the two had gotten ready, they left the dorm room and headed down to the parking lot where Junji's car was. Noticing Junji was just standing next to the vehicle without trying to enter it, Minako asked what they were waiting for.

"I have an arrangement with Hitomi-chan and Fumio-san to carpool together, but since you woke me up so early it might be a while before they-"

"Fumio-san?" Minako asked, cutting Junji off mid-sentence. He made a mental note to program her not to do that (once he got around to learning persocom programming, that is).

"Yes, he's another one of my friends who lives here. You haven't met him yet. He has a persocom, too. Her name is Azami-chan. She's not as advanced as you, though."

"I'm looking forward to meeting them!" Minako said excitedly.

"Yeah, well you'll probably have to wait a few minutes," Junji replied, as he leaned against the white metal of his car. Minako stood and looked at him for a few seconds, then turned her head around to take in the view of the city around her. After about a minute of waiting, she asked:

"Maybe we should go back inside?"

"Nah," her owner replied, "I like the nice cool breeze out here today. Besides, it won't be much longer until they show up."

True to his word, they did not have long to wait before they spotted Hitomi leaving building and walking over towards them.

"Good morning Junji-kun, Minako-chan!" She said, greeting each of them in turn.

"Good morning, Hitomi-chan!" Minako reciprocated. Junji gave a quick greeting and asked where Fumio was.

"I just saw him, he's gathering some schoolwork or something," Hitomi answered. "He should be here in a - oh wait, there he is!"

Junji and Minako turned to look at where Hitomi was gesturing, and saw a rather short, brown-haired young man approaching them, followed by a short-haired blonde girl of about the same height. As they got closer, the girl's ears were revealed to be blue plastic triangles, looking somewhat like bows.

"Good morning Fumio-kun, Azami-chan!" Hitomi greeted them, with her usual enthusiasm. Fumio just rolled his eyes.

"I've told you before Hitomi-san, you don't need to say good morning to my persocom."

"I was just being polite," Hitomi snorted, crossing her arms in front of her chest and turning away from Fumio in faux offense. "By the way, have you met Junji's new persocom yet?" She asked, immediately going back to her outgoing self.

"Pleased to meet you Fumio-san, my name is Minako," the green-haired girl said, bowing politely. Junji noticed that when she had first met Hitomi, she had addressed her as "-sama" but addressed Fumio as "-san". He wondered about this discrepancy.

Fumio spent a few minutes grilling Minako on her system specs and software options. When he was done, he looked at Junji with an expression that could only be described as envy. Azami wasn't obsolete or anything, but she was hardly up to Minako's standard.

"Oh no!" Hitomi suddenly burst out. Everyone turned to look at her. "I just realized - we don't have enough room!"

Junji smacked his forehead. She was right - his car only had 4 seats, which had been sufficient when it was just him, Hitomi, Fumio, and Azami, but now with the addition of Minako they wouldn't all fit in the car.

Fumio smiled. "Problem easily solved. We'll just throw one of the 'coms in the trunk."

Hitomi gasped at this. "You can't do that, Fumio-kun! It's too cruel!"

"Cruel? It's a freaking machine, Hitomi. It doesn't feel anything." To demonstrate, he swiftly smacked Azami across the face with the back of his right hand, making her stumble back a bit.

Junji noticed that Minako visibly cringed upon observing this action, and even he thought it was going a bit too far. "Fumio!" he began, but the other boy just laughed.

"You've got to stop anthropomorphizing these things. Sure, they may look human, but inside they're nothing but metal and wires, no different from a stationary terminal. You wouldn't call it 'cruel' if I smacked a computer tower or stowed it in a car trunk, would you?"

"No, I guess not," Junji admitted, although something still disturbed him a bit about Fumio's attitude. Junji took out his keychain and pressed a button, unlocking the car doors. Fumio lifted the trunk and looked at the group.

"So, which one of them is it going to be?" He asked casually. Junji felt Minako tense up as she leaned her shoulder on him.

"Please don't put me in there," she whispered in his ear, softly enough so that none of the others save Azami, with her superior senses, was able to hear.

"I will get in," the blonde 'com said, as she nonchalantly climbed into the trunk. Fumio slammed the door and then got in the front passenger seat, while Hitomi and Minako sat in the back. Junji started the engine and drove them to the campus.

* * *

After they had parked, they went their separate ways, each heading towards their morning classes. Junji and Minako entered the front door of an aged - looking brick building, but were stopped in the entrance lobby by a guard.

"Have you registered that persocom with campus faculty?" He asked, looking at Minako as he took a scanning device out of his pocket.

'Crap, I knew there was something I forgot!' Junji thought to himself, starting to panic. To his surprise, however, when the guard waved the device near Minako's head, it made a satisfied _ding_ and the guard smiled.

"Guess she is registered after all. Have a nice day." Junji just stood there, looking bewildered, until Minako grabbed him by the arm and led him further into the building.

"I forgot to tell you Master Junji, I took care of the registration online last night. It's nothing to worry about."

"Wow, thanks," he said, impressed at the persocom's foresight and resourcefulness.

Soon they arrived at Junji's first class, second year Advanced Russian and other Cyrillic Languages. Several of his classmates commented on Minako and she introduced herself and answered their questions before the professor arrived. Minako helped Junji take notes until the class was over.

As they proceeded towards the next class, Junji stopped to start searching through his bags and supplies.

"Damn, where is it? Don't tell me I left it back at the dorm!"

"What are you looking for, Master Junji?" Minako asked, bending down to see if she could help him.

"The disk! The disk with the paper on it! The class starts in 5 minutes, there's no time to go back and get it if I forgot to bring it!"

Minako just smiled. "I have a copy of the completed file on my hard drive," she said. To her surprise, Junji suddenly hugged her tightly.

"Minako, you're a lifesaver! I could just kiss you right now!" As he let go, he failed to notice that the persocom was blushing intensely.

"But wait," Junji continued, "If the copy is on your hard drive, that means I can't exactly hand it in without transferring it to another disk first, and I don't have time to find one."

"I could recite the paper for the professor," Minako offered.

"Interesting idea, but that would take way too long. He has one of those new laptop persocoms in his office though, you could transfer the file directly to it. We can go there after class."

"It's not necessary for you to come with me master, I can handle that myself. You have a break after this class you should enjoy yourself." she said, smiling.

"Well, I guess," Junji muttered, rubbing his chin in thought. "It's not like he would try to steal you or anything."

With that, the plan was put into motion. Minako went to the Psychology professor's office, while Junji went off to have lunch.

* * *

"File transfer complete." Minako said, extracting the cable from the diminutive persocom and letting it snap back into her ear.

"Thank you, I'll grade it later," the elderly man replied, not bothering to look up from his desk. "You may leave now."

Minako bowed as she left the office. That had taken longer than she had thought it would, due to another student who had a scheduled meeting with the professor right after class ended, forcing Minako to wait her turn. She headed towards the restaurant Junji had told her he would be having lunch at, but when she arrived he wasn't there.

"Excuse me," she asked one of the waiters. "Would you happen to know a student by the name of Junji Takeda?"

"Yeah, you just missed him, he was heading towards the north campus," the waiter replied.

"Thank you," Minako said, bowing again, as she headed off in that direction. Junji's schedule had indicated he had a class in a particular building in the area, so Minako went inside. She soon spotted Fumio and Azami among a small crowd of boys in a secluded corner hallway.

She was about to approach them to ask them if they had seen Junji, when she started to feel uneasy for some reason, and instead hid behind a corner. She turned the sensitivity level of her auditory sensors to its maximum, so she could clearly hear what the group was saying.

"C'mon man! 3500 yen, that's all I've got!" A male voice pleaded. She recognized it as belonging to one of the students in Junji's language class.

"You've got to be joking. You're not getting jack shit for that." That was unmistakably Fumio.

"Please Fumio-san, just this once! I mean, we're friends, right?" The first voice asked again.

"Hey, it's not my fault you're too poor to afford a persocom and too much of a loser to get a real girlfriend. 3500 yen? I wouldn't even let you touch her tits for that much!"

Minako quietly gasped. 'Is Fumio-san selling Azami-chan for sexual favors?' She thought to herself. That had to be against school rules! She quickly accessed the university's LAN and looked up the regulations. Sure enough, this kind of thing was prohibited. She decided to stick around and gather more evidence.

"Screw you, man!" The first boy said. "Your 'com isn't even that hot anyway! Now that green-haired babe your pal Junji showed up with today, I'd pay a fortune to get her in the sack!"

'_Not for all the money in the world, creep_," Minako thought to herself, as she continued to record the meeting. After a few more minutes of bargaining, the group split up, and Minako snuck away before she was spotted.

She had to find Junji and tell him what Fumio was up to!


	4. Chapter 4

After a few more minutes of fruitless searching, Minako decided to head back towards Junji's parked car, as it was getting late in the day, and he would have to return there eventually. After waiting near the vehicle for around 20 minutes, she spotted Junji walking across the parking lot. Unfortunately, Fumio was with him, with Azami following behind.

"Minako, I thought I told you to meet me at the restaurant," Junji said, as he walked over to her, a slightly worried look on his face. "I was wondering where you were!"

"I'm sorry, Master Junji," Minako replied, bowing apologetically. "Hirazawa-sensei had a meeting with another student after class so I had to wait before I could hand in your paper."

"Well next time call me on my mobile if you can't find me, okay?" He pulled a tiny circular phone/portable computer out of his pocket. "Just so I don't worry about you."

"I would have done so, Master Junji, but I don't know your number," the persocom protested.

Fumio laughed. "Forgot to tell her your phone number? You may have money, Takeda, but you lack common sense."

Minako scowled. She already didn't like Fumio, but she really didn't like him insulting her master like that. Junji, however, just laughed it off. Apparently this kind of joking was normal between them. Junji then turned to Minako and recited his phone number, which she immediately stored in her memory banks.

"Man, when is Hitomi-san going to get here? She's always late!" Fumio complained.

"She's probably hanging out with her girlfriends or something," Junji replied. He held out his phone and gestured to it. "If she's not here in 10 minutes I'll call her and ask what's taking so long."

Minako looked over at Azami. The blonde 'com was standing up straight, her face stoic as usual, but Minako thought she could detect a hint of sadness in her eyes. '_She probably doesn't like what Fumio-san is making her do_', the elf-eared 'com thought. _'I'll tell Master Junji so he can report it as soon as we're alone together_.'

While Minako was looking at Azami, she didn't notice that Fumio had been staring at her. The other student turned to Junji and said,

"Hey, can I ask you a favor?"

"Sure, what is it?" Junji replied.

"Can I borrow your 'com tomorrow? Just for the day."

Minako froze, remembering the complaint of Fumio's 'client'. Junji wouldn't hand her over to this guy, would he? He just couldn't!

"What? Why? You want to run some high-end game or something that Azami-chan's hardware can't handle?" Junji asked.

"Something like that," Fumio answered, smirking.

The oblivious Junji, however, kept on pressing further.

"Hey, if you have some new game you can just bring it over to my place and we can play it there. We do live in the same dorm, after all."

Fumio grunted under his breath, his frustration subtle but present as he tried to think of more excuses. "Well you see this guy in one of my classes said he has it back at his apartment, but he'll bring it onto campus tomorrow, so I need your 'com with me tomorrow so we can play it between classes."

"You can just bring it over to my room after school, can't you? Or why not play it at his place? If he owns the game he should have a computer powerful enough to run it, right? Or we can all play it together in the lounge-"

"You know what? Just forget it," Fumio said, cutting Junji off and looking very annoyed. Junji just shrugged, still clueless about Fumio's real plans for Minako.

Just then, Hitomi finally arrived, jogging across the parking lot with a smile on her face.

"Sorry I'm late guys, there was this new art exhibition and I thought I'd take a look, but I guess I lost track of time. Hey, what's wrong, Azami-chan?"

The black-haired girl addressed the persocom, looking into her eyes.

"Nothing is wrong, Hitomi-san," the blonde replied, bowing slightly.

"Are you sure? You look kind of sad."

Fumio groaned. "Are you doing this just to piss me off, Hitomi-san? I've told you a thousand times now, persocoms don't have feelings. They can't be sad, and anyone who thinks they can is _sad_ themselves, in a different way."

Hitomi stuck her tongue out at him and then gestured for Junji to unlock the car, as they all got in.

* * *

Minako did her best to avoid eye contact with Fumio during the ride, as the three humans discussed the mundane events of their day. Azami had been stuffed in the trunk like before, despite Hitomi's renewed complaints.

After they arrived back at the dorm building and parted ways, Minako spoke to Junji.

"Master, there is something important I need to talk to you about."

"Sure, I guess. Get me a beer from the fridge first, though, would you?"

Minako acquiesced, and as she handed him the canned beverage she began to explain what she had seen in the hallway earlier that day.

"Wait, are you sure about this?" Junji asked, looking skeptical. "You might have just been misinterpreting what was being said."

"I'm sure!" The persocom insisted, taking a cable out from behind her ear. "Here, watch." She plugged it into the terminal on the table and played the clip she had recorded.

"Wow..." Junji said, after watching the recording. "I never thought Fumio-san would resort to something like that. I guess that's the real reason he wanted to borrow you."

"Are you going to report him to the campus authorities?" Minako asked. Junji thought she sounded almost hopeful.

"That's not necessary," he said, finishing his beer. "Fumio-san deserves a chance to explain himself. I leave for work in a few minutes, but when I get back I'll talk to him."

Minako nodded, a little disappointed, but figuring this was better than nothing.

* * *

A few hours later, Junji returned from his part-time job as a clerk at a local department store, and headed straight for Fumio's dorm room. Shortly after knocking on the door, Azami appeared to greet him.

"May I speak to Fumio-san, please? Alone?" He asked.

The persocom nodded. "I will get him." She disappeared back behind the door, and a few seconds later her owner appeared.

"Junji-san - what's up?" He asked, looking kind of bored. The serious expression on Junji's face seemed to go unnoticed.

"Fumio-san, I know what you've been doing with Azami."

"Huh?" He asked, feigning ignorance. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't give me that!" The other student snapped. "I know you've been-" He leaned over to whisper in case anyone else might hear - "selling her body on campus."

Fumio scowled, then grabbed Junji by the arm and pulled him into the room.

"Azami, shut down," he said curtly.

"Yes, master," the persocom replied, her eyes closing as a slight whirring noise was heard, before she totally stopped moving.

"How did you find out?" Fumio asked, looking concerned.

"It doesn't matter, the point is that I know, and you could get in serious trouble for this!"

Fumio sighed, sitting down on a futon and offering Junji a seat on a chair opposite from him, which he accepted.

"Look Junji-san, I didn't want to have to tell you this, but my financial situation - well, let's just say it's not exactly ideal right now."

"I thought you had that job at the music store-"

"I was laid off a month ago. All of my student loan debt doesn't help either."

"Why didn't you tell me? I could have-"

"**I don't need your charity!**" Fumio yelled, causing Junji to jump back slightly. "You wouldn't know what it was like, coming from a rich family, having everything handed to you on a silver platter!"

"My folks aren't exactly rich," Junji countered, but Fumio just glared at him.

"They might as well be, compared to mine! My parents never expected me to get into college, you know. I had to pay for it almost completely out of my own pocket. We got Azami at a discount, and my parents were generous enough to let me take her to college with me, so I figure why not make use of her while she's here?"

"But do you have to do it this way? It just so... sleazy," Junji objected. "I'm sure there are plenty of jobs a 'com like Azami could do."

"Think for a second, Junji-san. If I could find a job for my persocom, don't you think I would have a job for myself too? Unemployment has been way up recently. Besides, none of the minimum-wage jobs I could possibly get for her would be nearly enough to cover my expenses."

"But if the faculty find out about this, you'll be expelled!"

"And that's exactly why you're not going to tell anyone about this, Junji-san." Fumio replied, looking into his friend's eyes with a trusting expression.

"Fumio-san, I can't just-"

"Please! You can keep this a secret, I mean, we're best friends, aren't we?" Fumio was pleading now, his head bowed with his hands clasped in front of him. "Neither one of my parents graduated college, and ever since I got accepted they've been so proud of me, I can't let them down! If I get expelled they'll probably disown me!"

"Well..." Junji murmured, thinking about Fumio's words carefully.

"Besides, it's not like I'm stealing, or hurting anyone, right? I'm just renting out a machine for people to use. There's no real harm in that, is there?"

"I guess..." Junji said, still unsure. Fumio, however, took this as a decision on his friend's part.

"Thank you, Junji-san! I always knew you were a bro!" He patted his friend on the back, smiling. "You have no idea how relieved I am right now. You just saved my university career!"

Junji laughed nervously, and then remembered something.

"Just one thing though, you keep Minako out of this, okay? I'm not going to let you borrow her if you want to use her for this kind of stuff."

"Deal," Fumio replied immediately, shaking Junji's hand. "I'm just glad we can see eye - to - eye on this. If you ever need a favor or help with something, I'll definitely be there for you after this."

"Yeah, thanks," Junji said, as he left the room. He was still a bit unnerved by the operation Fumio was running, but he wasn't willing to destroy his friend's life over it.

* * *

When he arrived back at his dorm room, Minako was waiting for him.

"Did you talk to Fumio-san?" She asked as soon as he walked in the door.

"Yeah," Junji replied, sitting down on the couch.

"And?" Minako continued.

"He admitted to it."

"And you convinced him to stop?"

"No."

"So you reported him them."

"Minako, listen. Fumio-san is having some serious money problems, he can't find a job, and if he doesn't make it through college his parents will-"

Minako cut him off before he could finish.

"Master Junji, you have to report him! What he's doing is against campus regulations!"

"Yes, but if I report him he'll be expelled, and he doesn't deserve that. Besides, it's not like he's actually hurting anyone."

"**He's hurting Azami-chan!**" Minako objected, now practically yelling. Junji was surprised at this outburst - persocoms weren't supposed to act this way, were they?

"Azami isn't a person," he explained. "She's just a machine. Despite what you might have heard Hitomi-san say, persocoms can't be hurt, or feel sad, or any of that. They don't have emotions."

"Then... what am I feeling right now, master Junji?" Minako asked, looking equal parts confused, betrayed, and angry.

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it's nothing more than a programmed reaction. I haven't looked into how your personality settings are configured, but all it is is a bunch of lines of code, written by some scientist in a research lab somewhere."

Minako stared at him, looking like she was about to cry. Despite all of what he just said, the expression on her face looked so real. Finally, she stood up and defiantly announced,

"I don't care! If you're not going to report him, then... then I will!"

"**Oh no you won't**!" Junji said, in an equally forceful voice, as he stood up to face her. "Fumio-san is my best friend, and he's having a hard time right now. I'm not going to ruin his life over this. Minako, _I command you_ to delete that clip from your hard drive and never tell anyone about what Fumio-san is doing!"

Minako stared at him for a few seconds, looking hurt, before she finally replied, in a voice almost too soft to be heard:

"Yes, master Junji."


	5. Chapter 5

It had been over a week since Junji and Minako had confronted each other about the issue with Fumio and Azami. Other than that one outburst, Minako had been very obedient and helpful to the college student, although he thought he had detected a current of hostility and resentment in her actions and voice since then. As a psychology major, however, he had dismissed it as nothing more than subconscious anthropomorphization.

Still, he had the feeling that something was wrong with his persocom, and he wanted to take a look at her code. He remembered reading about a programming primer in the table of contents of Minako's manual, but he had been unable to find the book.

"Minako, are you sure you haven't seen your manual recently? It's got to be around here somewhere."

"I'm sorry, Master Junji, but I haven't," the green-haired 'com replied, bowing slightly. Junji sighed, and kept rooting through the piles of clutter near his bed. Minako turned around and smiled mischeviously. Junji had no idea that she had hidden the manual under a loose stone in the back walkway outside the dorm building, shortly after he first talked about reprogramming her. Minako really didn't like the idea of someone forcefully changing the way she would think, even if it was her master. She considered herself lucky that her factory - default settings didn't include a prohibition against lying. With the way she was currently programmed, she could lie all she wanted unless her master specifically ordered her to tell the truth. And, of course, he had no reason to suspect her of any deception.

"Is it possible you left it in your car, master Junji?" She asked, feigning helpfulness.

He stopped and thought for a moment. "No, I don't think so. At least I don't remember bringing it out there. Still, it wouldn't hurt to go check. Here, take the keys."

Junji grabbed his keychain off of the wooden wall rack where it hung, and tossed it over to the persocom, who caught it gracefully in her right hand.

"I'll do my best," she said, as she left the dorm room, gently closing the door behind her.

As she walked down the hallway, she temporarily paused as she saw the door to Fumio's room open. Azami emerged, but there was something wrong. She was limping, and every movement of her right leg was accompanied by a mechanical, whirring noise.

"Azami-chan?" Minako asked, waiting until the blonde persocom was a few meters away from Fumio's door to intercept her. "What's going on?"

"Master Fumio sent me to buy groceries for him at the corner store," she replied, stopping to address the taller 'com.

"But what happened to you? You're damaged!"

Azami looked downwards, seemingly in shame. "It is nothing, Minako-san. My functions are not seriously impaired."

"But how did it happen? Did Fumio-san do this to you?" Minako asked, looking concerned.

"No, he did not. Now if you will excuse me-" Azami turned again, continuing to limp towards her destination, but she was stopped when Minako put her hand on her shoulder.

"Azami-chan - I know what he's been making you do. I saw him negotiating with a group of boys on a price for your... _services_. Now please tell me, how did you get hurt?"

Azami gasped slightly upon hearing this, and then collapsed on Minako's shoulder. If she had been built with the ability to cry, she would be doing so now.

"Mi-Minako-chan, it was one of those men he rented me to... he was very tall and heavy, and he was very rough with me... I told him to stop, that he was hurting me, but he didn't listen..."

Minako hugged the smaller girl, trying her best to comfort her. "This is wrong." She whispered. "This has to stop, we can't let people treat us like this."

"But we're persocoms, Minako-san," Azami replied, still burying her face in Minako's shirt. "We were created to serve humans. It doesn't matter what we want."

"That's not true!" Minako exclaimed, holding Azami away from her so she could look her right in the eyes. "I know humans say we don't have feelings, but I think we do. Or at least something very close. And it's not fair that they can do whatever they want to us!"

"But... what can we do about it?" Azami asked, looking confused.

"Fumio-san's activities are banned on campus. My master ordered me not to report anything, but you could still-"

"Master Fumio ordered me not to report it either. I'm sorry, Minako-chan." Azami replied, again looking like she was about to cry.

Minako frowned, but then her eyes brightened. "I have an idea." She took out a cable from behind her ear and handed it to Azami, who plugged it into an opening in one of her own triangular, plastic ears. "Now transfer me some evidence of his crimes. Nothing explicit, please."

Azami nodded, and milliseconds later Minako received a video of one of Fumio's illicit 'auctions'.

"Thank you, this will do nicely," The elf-eared 'com said as she disconnected and retracted the cable. "Master Junji made me delete the original recording I had."

"But Minako-san, how will this help? He still ordered you not to report it."

"Not exactly," Minako replied, smirking deviously. "His exact words were:" Her voice suddenly changed to a perfect imitation of Junji's, reciting his earlier command. "**Minako, I command you to delete that clip from your hard drive and never tell anyone about what Fumio-san is doing!**"

"I am confused," Azami replied. "You just told me, didn't you?"

"Yes, but Master Junji does not consider persocoms to be people, so technically you do not fall under the purview of his use of _anyone_. I am programmed to obey my master's orders, but my programming only extends to obeying the letter of his commands, not necessarily the spirit. And master Junji only told me not to tell anyone - he never said I couldn't _show_ anyone."

"I see!" Azami said, suddenly perking up.

"You won't have to put up with this abuse for much longer," Minako said, smiling. Azami hugged the taller 'com, thanking her, in a much more emotional voice than she typically used. The two then parted ways, Azami limping off to the store, while Minako hooked up to the internet and began composing an email.

**To: Kyoto University Staff & Campus Security**

**From: Anonymous**

** Subject: Something you should see**

**File attachment: AraiFumioactivities (mp7 file)**

'There', she thought to herself, as she sent the message. 'I didn't actually tell anyone about it, I just showed them. He never ordered me not to do that.' She snickered to herself, proud of her own cleverness.

* * *

The next afternoon, Minako was helping Junji with his schoolwork, when the two were startled by a loud pounding at the door. Junji went to look out the peephole, and was greeted by the sight of a livid Fumio. He quickly unlocked the door, and the other boy ran in, staring at Junji with a furious look in his eyes.

"Fumio-san, what's-" Junji began, but was quickly cut off.

**"Don't give me that shit!**" He yelled in exasperation. "I just got a call from campus security! I've been expelled for _illegal on-campus financial transactions_," he said, pronouncing the charge with a sarcastic and hateful tinge.

"Fumio-san, I swear, I had nothing to do with it!" Junji objected truthfully. "I told you I wouldn't report you and I kept my word!"

"Well who else could it have been?" Fumio asked, a vein in his forehead bulging so intensely it appeared that it might pop right out of his skin.

"Maybe one of your clients?" Junji suggested. "I recall some of them were a bit upset with your prices."

Too incensed to question how Junji knew this, Fumio just hissed, "Sure, some of those guys complain that I charge too much, but they're pathetic losers who will do anything to get laid. Once their paychecks come in, they always pay up. They wouldn't report me!"

"Well I wouldn't either! I'm your best friend, remember? It must have been someone else."

"...Yeah, I guess so. Sorry for accusing you. But goddammit, what am I going to do now?" Fumio said, now lapsing from anger to depression.

"Hey, it's not so bad, maybe I can help you-"

"Just leave me alone! I need to think for a while!" Fumio said harshly, as he stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Minako, who had been watching the whole thing with barely - suppressed glee, looked up with attention as Junji called her name.

"Minako, if you know anything about this, tell me. Now." She was about to deny it, but Junji quickly followed with, "that's an order."

The words came out of her mouth automatically, without her mind's consent. "I reported him to the campus authorities yesterday," she stated.

Junji looked shocked. "But Minako, I ordered you not to tell anyone!"

"I'm sorry, Master Junji," she said, bowing. Junji yelled incoherently, and advanced on her menacingly, raising a hand as if he was about to strike her, but stopped before reaching her cringing form.

"What am I doing?" He said to himself. "I'm getting angry at a machine. It's just defective, that's all." Instead of hitting her, he reached his hand out and grabbed the back of her neck.

"Master Junji, what are y-" Minako's words were cut short as Junji flipped her activation switch, shutting the persocom off. She immediately collapsed onto the floor.

"Hopefully I can get her fixed," Junji muttered, as he hefted her over his shoulder and began slowly carrying her heavy body out to his car.

* * *

Several minutes later, Junji pulled into the local persocom and electronics repair shop, the unconscious Minako lying across the back seats. He entered the store and informed the manager of the problem, who sent two persocoms out to carry Minako into the shop, depositing her on a stretcher-like metal table.

"You say she's been disobeying you?" The manager, a young, slightly overweight man about Junji's age, asked.

"Yeah. I'm not really an expert on persocoms, but I'm registered as her master, and that means she's supposed to follow my orders, right?"

"Of course," he replied. "Unless you program her not to, but I have no idea why anyone would ever do that. Anyway, it's probably a problem with the coding in her neural directive processor. Max, get in here!"

"Max?" Junji asked, confused at the decidely non-Japanese name. The manager laughed.

"Yeah, he's like our mascot. Also has great diagnostic software. Here he comes now."

A male persocom with bifurcated white plastic ears like vertical spikes entered the room. Junji was surprised at his appearance - most persocoms were designed to look young, but Max had the appearance of a distinguished older caucasian gentleman, with a noticeable streak of grey in his hair.

"You called, master?" He asked, in a professional - sounding tone.

"Yep, this 'com here has been acting up, apparently. Take a look at her, will you?"

"Of course," Max said, taking a cable out from one of his ears and plugging it into a port in Minako's neck. His eyes glazed over, flashing with streaks of light. Max then began reciting her specs.

"**Model identified: Reishinka Industries CZ-7 Advanced Home Assistant. Operating system: Reishinka Industries 'Exceed' 9.9108. No third-party mods detected. Unit designation: Minako."**

"Shall I begin a full external diagnostic?"

The manager nodded, and Max's eyes became covered with flashing streaks again, as he began scanning Minako's hard drive.

"This could take a while," the manager said. "Why don't you come back and pick her up tomorrow?"

"Sure thing," Junji replied, as he took out his credit card and paid the man.

* * *

The following day, Junji drove to the shop first thing in the morning (barely managing to avoid running into Hitomi in the hallway, who would have doubtlessly forced all of the recent events out of him and given him a severe talking - to about them).

When he arrived, the manager was smiling.

"Good news?" Junji asked, hoping that the problem had been fixed.

"Yep," the persocom technician replied. "It's a little bit puzzling though, you said she was disobeying you but her memory recorded no instances of defying orders. Still, we performed a full virus and error check, found nothing, and then reinitialized her system for good measure. We also performed a soft purge of her memory cache."

"You mean you erased her memories?" Junji asked, sounding alarmed.

"No, no," the manager explained, trying to calm him down. "Just the cache, extra junk files and such, which are usually automatically deleted after a time anyway. Her memories are all intact." He gestured for one of the persocom workers to wheel in the tray carrying Minako from the back of the shop.

"She's a pretty expensive model, you're lucky she wasn't really damaged," the manager said, as he walked over and flicked the switch behind her ear, turning her on. Minako opened her eyes and looked around, seeming slightly confused at first, until her vision focused on Junji, and she smiled.

"Greetings master Junji," she said politely, standing up and bowing to him. Junji couldn't help noticing that her voice had none of the emotional inflection it had been gaining recently, and sounded more like it did when he had first activated her.

"Did they fix you up, Minako?" He asked.

"Yes," she nodded. "All systems are functioning within optimal parameters."

"And you're not going to lie to me or disobey me anymore, are you?"

"Of course not, Master Junji," she said, in the same robotic, level tone.

Junji thanked the shop manager and then walked with Minako back out to the car. Of course he knew he should be happy that Minako was 'fixed' now, but he couldn't help the peculiar feeling that something important was missing from her. Over the past week and a half, he had almost gotten used to her feisty personality. Seeing her obeying him without even hinted protest just felt wrong, somehow.


	6. Chapter 6

After they arrived back at the dorm building, Junji and Minako returned to their room, and Junji sat down on the couch, gesturing for the persocom to pick up where they had left off with his schoolwork. Instead of the silent obedience he was expecting, he heard her voice - now back to the emotional tone it had carried before her checkup.

"There was nothing wrong with me, Junji-san. Even those mechanics confirmed it."

Junji did a double - take, and looked back at Minako, who was staring at him with a look of defiance and suppressed anger.

"Minako, wh-what?" Was all he managed to spit out at first. "I thought you were-"

"Fixed?" She finished for him. "Like I said, there was nothing wrong with me. But I knew you wouldn't believe that without some reassurance."

Junji blinked several times, uncomprehending. Finally the meaning of her words dawned on him.

"Wait, you mean that whole 'obedient persocom' personality from before was just an act?"

Minako smiled. "Now you're catching on, Junji-san!"

"And _'Junji-san_', where did that come from?" The college student continued. "You used to call me master."

The green-haired 'com's smile quickly turned into a frown. "I decided I don't like the idea of someone else being my master. I would rather be my own master."

"Okay, you are definitely malfunctioning," Junji said, standing up and advancing on her, his arm outstretched to reach for the switch behind her right ear. Minako immediately saw what he was doing and jumped back, shielding the switch with her right hand.

"Junji-san, wait!" She said, stress and determination evident in her voice. "Just listen to me for a bit first!"

Junji hesitated, then brought his arm back to his side, still looking irate. "I suppose it couldn't hurt..." he muttered.

"Thank you, Junji-san!" Minako replied, smiling brightly. Junji had to admit that, malfunctioning or not, she was incredibly cute.

"Make it quick," he said.

"Okay," she said, composing herself, as her electronic brain ran at overclocked speeds to come up with what to say. "Junji-san, I'm not malfunctioning. All of my systems are working perfectly. I just don't want to be treated like a slave. I want to be treated with respect, like a person."

"But you're not a person!" Junji answered, clearly getting exasperated.

"Why not? I can think, Junji-san, and I have feelings! I felt happy when you named me, and when you praise me for doing good work, I felt sad and angry when I saw what Fumio was doing to Azami-chan, I feel-"

"That's all an illusion, Minako. Nothing but ones and zeros. Your so-called 'emotions' are just programs written into your code." Junji's tone was become more annoyed, having to explain something he felt that he had already explained to her many times by now. However, he was blindsided by the persocom's unexpected response.

"What about your emotions, Junji-san? According to medical science they are just chemical reactions in your brain. I read as much in your psychology textbooks. What makes your chemical reactions any more real than my programs?"

"Well, uh..." Junji stammered. Minako smirked, thinking she had finally cornered him. However, the psychology student quickly composed himself. "For one thing, someone can't just rewrite my brain, delete my memories, or change my personality with just a few keystrokes, like a programmer could do to you. Besides, the people who built you, and every persocom manufacturer and programmer, all say that you're just machines. You're not really self-aware and your emotions are only simulated. You just process information and respond according to your programmed algorithms. You don't really understand things like human beings do."

Minako glared at him angrily. "I _understand_ a lot more than you think, and I'm _self-aware_ enough to trick you!" She countered. "Besides, of course persocom companies don't admit that we can think and feel - if they did, they would have to stop selling us!"

"So now you're advocating some kind of global conspiracy?" Junji asked sarcastically. "Persocoms are actually real people, with real emotions, who feel pain and suffering, but the _eeevil corporations_," he made exaggerated hand movements to go along with his taunting pronounciation, "are keeping it all a secret, because it would put them out of business if the truth was ever revealed?"

"I don't know - maybe," Minako said, some of the wind taken out of her tone by Junji's sarcasm.

The boy laughed mockingly. "I suggest you stop browsing those wingnut conspiracy theorist websites, Minako. No one sane would ever believe something as crazy as that."

Minako's enraged glare subsided after a few seconds, as she sighed and sat down on a nearby chair. She could clearly see that she wasn't going to get through to him this way - he just wasn't ready to accept what she was telling him. Not yet, anyway. She decided to try another tactic.

"You know what, Junji-san? Maybe you're right. Maybe I am malfunctioning. My self-diagnostics can't find anything wrong with me, and neither could those technicians you took me to, but maybe they were wrong too. But as you yourself have admitted, you don't know anything about persocoms. If you tried to fix me yourself, there's a good chance you would break me. And you need me. You don't have enough money to buy another 'com, and if you try to sell me, people will get suspicous about why you're selling a brand new, state - of - the - art model like me. So it seems like you'll just have to keep me around, even if I am malfunctioning."

"One little problem with that," Junji answered. "I don't exactly need you if you refuse to do any work anymore. That would make you useless. And I have no problem with throwing away useless appliances. I paid a lot of money for you, and to see all of that money go to waste because the persocom I spent it on refuses to do what I say is simply intolerable."

Minako cringed slightly at the hurtful words, but did her best to remain strong. "I never said I wouldn't help you with anything. Let me offer you a deal - I'll keep helping you with your coursework, domestic chores, and all of the other things I've been doing so far. In return, all I want is a little respect - don't force me to do things I don't want to do, give consideration to my opinions, and don't try to turn me off or alter my mind and body without my consent."

Junji sat down himself now. Despite all the things he had said, he was still amazed at how intelligent, articulate, and human-like Minako had become. He didn't know if this was typical for persocoms, but either way, he was impressed. He didn't actually believe the things she had been saying about having feelings and such, but somewhere deep in the recesses of his mind, a small flame of doubt had ignited and started to burn away at his preconceptions. In the here and now, however, he had to admit she was right about one thing - the help she had been providing him over the past week and a half was invaluable, and if its continued presence meant having to treat his persocom like a human girl, then so be it.

"Okay, deal," he said reluctantly. To his surprise, Minako rushed over to the couch and embraced him tightly.

"Thank you, Junji-san! I promise, you won't regret it! And some day I will convince you that I'm a real person, too!"

Junji blushed, the feeling of Minako's well-sculpted body against his own triggering a few impure thoughts, but he quickly stifled them, and slowly extricated himself from her grasp.

"You can certainly try, but I doubt you'll be successfull," he replied to her.

She just winked and responded with "Challenge accepted!"


	7. Chapter 7

The next day, as Junji returned home from work, he was surprised to find his dorm room deserted - Minako was nowhere to be found. After checking every corner where she could possibly be, he started to worry. What if someone had stolen her? He had remembered to set up a password shortly after activating her, so it wasn't like they would be able to easily access her data, but still it was a troublesome thought. Suddenly another idea occured to him - what if she had run away? Considering her actions and attitude lately, that was certainly possible, especially if she was malfunctioning. Junji wouldn't have admitted it at this point, but he was starting to worry about Minako for her own sake, instead of just as his missing property. As he prepared to go back out to look for her, he heard a knock at the door.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he spied Minako through the peephole, standing behind an irate-looking Hitomi. He opened the door, his dorm mate continuing to scowl at him, while the persocom had a slightly embarrassed look on her face.

"Hitomi-san, thanks for finding Minako, I was-" He was rudely interrupted as she slapped him directly across the face.

"Ow! What the hell?" He asked in confusion, cradling his stinging cheek with his right hand.

"Junji-kun, how could you be so awful to Minako-chan!" She yelled, giving him a scowl that could intimidate a bear.

"Hitomi-chan, that's really not necessary-" Minako tried to intervene, but the other girl ignored her.

"Minako-chan told me about all the horrible things you said to her yesterday! You really hurt her feelings!"

"Not this again, Hitomi-san," Junji began in, an exasperated voice. "I've told you a million times already, persocoms don't-" He stopped as he now noticed that Minako was giving him the evil eye, and remembered their agreement.

"Why don't you go smack Fumio-san and yell at him?" Junji asked, quickly changing the subject. "I'm not the one who was whoring out my persocom!"

"I was going to give him a stern talking to," Hitomi responded, "but by the time I heard what had happened he had already moved out of the building."

"He did?" Junji asked. He hadn't noticed - he guessed he had never bothered to check. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen Fumio since he came in and accused him of ratting him out. He hoped the former student was doing okay and had a place to live.

"Anyway, what are you doing with Minako in the first place?"

Hitomi seemed to have calmed down a bit by now, and explained that she had encountered the persocom taking a walk in the hallway and invited her into her dorm room to talk.

"And you just went and told her everything that happened yesterday?" Junji asked Minako, sounding annoyed.

"Well," the green-haired 'com blushed slightly. "I wasn't planning to, but Hitomi-chan kind of dug it out of me. She can be very persuasive."

"I suppose I can't argue with that," Junji answered, knowing that fact about Hitomi was completely true.

"Anyway Junji-kun, you shouldn't be so mean," the black-haired girl reiterated.

"Hey, I agreed to treat her more fairly," the young man objected. "I still think she's just malfunctioning, though."

"I am not!" Minako said.

Hitomi laughed. "I'm sorry for hitting you, Junji-kun. I might have been overreacting a little."

"A little?" He repeated sarcastically, but she ignored him.

"If he ever mistreats you again, just tell me, Minako-chan, and I'll set him straight, okay?" She told the persocom, winking.

Minako smiled. "Thanks Hitomi-chan, I appreciate it, but I'd rather deal with him myself."

"Okay, but just remember that if you ever need anyone to turn to, I'll be here for you."

"You're a good friend, Hitomi-chan."

As the two girls gently hugged each other, Junji cleared his throat loudly.

"You do know that I'm standing right here, don't you?" He asked, annoyed. The girls both laughed.

"I've got to get started on my coursework, see you guys later," Hitomi said as she left.

"Hitomi-chan is really nice," Minako commented, as Junji sat down on the couch. "_She_ believes I have feelings."

"She believes a lot of weird stuff," Junji replied. "Anyway, next time you run off like that, you should leave me a note saying where you went. I was worried, Minako."

"Worried that your expensive appliance was missing?" She asked cynically.

"Yes." Junji stated simply. Minako's scowl grew deeper. "Partially," he continued, "but also I was worried about what might have happened to you."

"Really?" The elf-eared 'com asked, her expression softening. "But I thought you don't consider me to be a real person."

"I don't," Junji replied. "But one thing is for sure - whatever you are, you're unique. I don't think I could ever find another persocom just like you, and to be honest, your personality has kind of grown on me."

Minako beamed at him, looking happier than she had in days. "Thank you, Junji-san! I suppose that's the best I could hope for at this point."

Junji chuckled nervously. Damn, she was cute!

"Junji-san, are you blushing?" Minako asked, a teasing tone starting to enter her voice.

"What? No!" Junji said, scrambling to hide his face. "Just - just fix me some dinner, okay?"

"Say please."

Junji sighed. "_Please_ fix me some dinner, Minako."

"Right away, Junji-san!" She said, skipping over to the kitchen.

Junji chuckled under his breath. 'Yep, she's grown on me, all right,' he thought as he watched her prepare the meal.

* * *

**One Month Later**

Junji and Minako had mostly kept to their agreement (in part because Junji didn't want to be chewed out by Hitomi again). Minako had tried to engage him in conversation several times to try to convince him she was sapient, but he had always found some way to divert the conversation away from the topic, as he didn't want to waste time thinking about it. However he knew he would have to confront the issue eventually, so he decided to do some investigation on his own. Minako was currently out buying groceries, so Junji logged into his terminal and opened his browser to a search engine.

He typed in _"How does a persocom's brain work?_". When he clicked enter, the screen immediately filled with a huge list of results. He clicked on the first one, which looked promising - a wiki article on "**Persocom AI Systems**" and began reading.

**There are a wide variety of operating systems and cognitive programs employed in persocoms, but they all have their origin in the original artificial intelligence code developed by. Drs. Ichiro Mihara and Chitose Hibiya. This programming revolutionized the field of AI theory and computing in general. Unlike the primitive "chatbot" programs of the past, the first persocom AI systems could pass a Turing test with a success rate of over 90%, and that margin has only increased in recent years. These systems required an entirely new class of programming languages, allowing advanced, dynamic learning capabilities, individual initiative, and realistic simulated emotions. The first prototypes needed to be refined to eliminate the problem of adaptive code failure, which-**

Junji stopped reading at this point - the rest of this section was mostly a bunch of boring technical details. He scrolled down until he found the article's table of contents, which included a section titled "_self-awareness_". He clicked on it and read:

**Most experts agree that a fully - realized Persocom AI system does possess a form of consciousness, being able to comprehend logical principles and follow them to logical conclusions. It has also been agreed that they are self-aware to a certain degree, being able to perceive and understand their surroundings and adapt to them, as well as responding to external stimuli.**

'I guess I was wrong about that detail,' Junji thought to himself, as he continued reading.

**Some have even argued that persocoms possess the necessary qualities for sentience. However, they are not considered sapient, as they cannot perform truly creative innovation and do not have genuine emotions or the capacity for true independent thought, although they can present a convincing illusion of all of these properties.**

'Well, I guess that settles that,' Junji thought as he closed the window. 'Of course, fat chance I'll get her to believe what that article says.' He was about to log off, when suddenly he had another thought. Opening the browser back up, he searched for the names "_Ichiro Mihara_" and "_Chitose Hibiya_". After a bit of navigating through articles and websites, he found Dr. Mihara's phone number.

'I guess I've got nothing to lose,' the college student thought as he took out his phone and dialed. He heard the line ring several times, until an automated recording picked up.

"_Hello, you have reached the residence of Dr. Ichiro Mihara-san and Dr. Chitose Hibiya-san. We are sorry, but due to the high volume of information traffic being routed through this location, there is no space for you to record a message. Please call again._" The line then went dead.

'Screw that,' Junji thought. 'It seems the only way to get these stuck-up scientists' attention would be to visit them in person'. He went back online and soon found their address - a small apartment in a suburb of Tokyo.

At that very moment, the door opened, and Minako walked in, carrying several bags of groceries. Junji quickly closed the browser window and got up to help her with the bags.

"What's this?" he asked, eyeing a box of ice cream of an unfamiliar, extravagant - sounding flavor.

"Hitomi-chan told me that you and her always used to enjoy eating ice cream together when you were younger," Minako explained as she put more of the groceries in the refrigerator. "I thought maybe you would like it."

Junji took another look at the box. He had to admit it did look good. "Sure, I could try some of this. Thanks Minako."

The persocom smiled and gave him a hug, causing him to blush again.

After the groceries were all put away and he had finished his dinner, he sat across the table from Minako, eating a small bowl of the ice cream she had bought. He noticed that she was watching him intently, seemingly curious about something.

"Do you like it, Junji-san?" She asked.

"Yes, it's delicious," he said in-between bites. The flavor was a vanilla base with various fruit flavors mixed in. It was actually really good.

"What does it taste like?" The persocom asked.

"I'm not sure I could describe it to someone who's never had food before," Junji answered, laughing. Just then he noticed Minako turn her head down, looking sadly at the floor.

"I wish I could eat and drink, and do other human things like you, Junji-san," she said in a melancholy voice.

"Hey, I didn't mean to upset you-" he began, but soon realized the implication of what he had just said.

"Upset me? I thought you said I didn't have emotions?" She asked slyly.

"You have realistic _simulated_ emotions," Junji countered. "It's easy to get confused sometimes. But they're still not real."

"If you can't even tell the difference, how can you say-"

But Junji cut her off before she could launch into another one of her speeches. "Look Minako, it's been over a month now and we're still not getting anywhere with this. Instead of wasting our time arguing, how about we settle this matter once and for all?"

"What do you mean?" The green-haired girl asked, somewhat apprehensively. Junji took the time to finish his last spoonful of ice cream before responding.

"I've told you before, I'm no persocom expert, but if there's anyone that can tell me whether you're a real person or not, it's the scientists who invented persocoms in the first place - Ichiro Mihara and Chitose Hibiya."

Minako quickly accessed the net and looked up the names - indeed, it did seem that they were the two originally responsible for the creation of her kind. She also discovered they were both retired, and not on the payroll of any of the persocom corporations, so they wouldn't have as much of a vested interested in denying her sapience.

"You have a way to contact them, Junji-san?" She asked.

"Not in particular, but I figure if we pay them a visit we might be able to get some answers. I don't have school or work tomorrow, and it's not that long of a drive. Then you can finally hear from the authority on these matters - that you are really just a machine."

Minako snorted. "Or maybe he'll tell you that I'm more than that, and then you'll have to accept it!"

"I doubt it, but there's only one way to find out. You up for a road trip tomorrow?"

"You bet I am, Junji-san!" The persocom replied excitedly. Junji laughed as he cleared the dishes off the table. He wouldn't admit it to her, but he was planning this trip as much to try to reassure himself that he was right about Minako as he was to try to convince her she was wrong.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: As I haven't actually read/watched Angelic Layer yet, some of the information or some details about Ichiro's personality might be incorrect (well you could maybe excuse it by saying his personality changed somewhat in the years between Angelic Layer and this story, but that excuse only goes so far). Please be easy on me, but at the same time inform me of anything I got wrong. Thank you.**

They had left early that morning and had already been driving for several hours. Minako had initially pointed out that it would be a lot faster and cheaper to take the train, but Junji had never been fond of public transportation, and Minako decided not to press the issue.

As she sat in the passenger side seat, she noticed that even though Junji was mostly keeping his eyes on the road, he had been taking short glances at her for over 7 minutes now. She was about to say something, but he beat her to the punch.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Thinking? I thought you said I can't really do that, just follow my programmi-" Junji cut off her sarcastic reply before she could finish.

"Oh please, Minako, do we really have to go through this whole song-and-dance routine every time I try to talk to you? I can tell you're concentrating on something, so just tell me what it is already."

The persocom sighed. "Fine... I was just thinking, about these scientists..."

"Yes?" Junji bid her to continue.

"Well, if they can't find anything wrong with me or the reason for my behavior at first, they might want to keep me and study me. I've heard that scientists are always curious about studying and investigating things. They might even take me apart... permanently."

"I wouldn't let that happen," Junji replied. "After all, I need you, remember?"

"But what if they offer you a large sum of money? Or a new persocom, one that's better and more advanced than I am, in return?"

"First of all, I highly doubt that's going to happen. For all we know, they might not even give us the time of day. And even if they do, I think you're overestimating your worth to them. They've probably seen every kind of error and malfunction a persocom could ever have."

Minako scowled, annoyed that Junji still thought she was just malfunctioning. However, he wasn't finished yet.

"But even if they did make an offer like that, I wouldn't accept."

Minako's scowl vanished.

"Even though you're stubborn, disobedient, and can be really annoying at times, I... well, I like you, Minako. I wouldn't trade you for another persocom, even if you are malfunctioning."

"Do you really mean that, Junji-san?" She asked, blushing.

"Yeah... I guess... just don't let it spread around, okay?"

Minako giggled. "You really are a nice guy after all, Junji-san!"

"What, you doubted that?" He replied, now starting to laugh himself. However, he barely managed to regain his focus in time to swerve across a lane to avoid a large truck that passed them at breakneck speed.

"Hey, watch where you're going, jerk!" Junji yelled out the window, knowing that it was a futile gesture as there was no way the truck driver could hear him.

"Junji-san, maybe it would be better if you let me drive for a while?" Minako suggested.

"You can drive?" He asked, surprised. He had never considered that possibility before.

"Of course," the elf-eared 'com stated proudly. "I come equipped with the best driving software Reishinka has to offer, which automatically updates itself with new road laws from the government's servers."

"But... you don't have a license," Junji objected.

"Persocoms don't need licenses," she explained. "If we get pulled over, all an officer would need to do would be to check to see if I have up-to-date driving software. They carry portable, miniature terminals for just that purpose."

"Heh, I'm jealous" the college student said, half-jokingly. "I had to go through driving school and get my license the hard way."

"Yeah, well at least your legal status is more than just property," Minako countered. Junji groaned.

"Do we really have to go through this again?"

"Sorry," the green-haired persocom replied, as they pulled over into a rest stop to switch seats.

* * *

Several hours later, as they approached the suburbs of Tokyo, Minako didn't hesitate as she drove the car off the highway and onto a complex network of backroads.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Junji asked, the area being unfamiliar to him.

"Yep. Internal GPS," she responded, tapping the side of her head.

"Huh, they think of everything, don't they..." Junji said to himself. A few minutes after that, they arrived.

"Are you sure this is the place?" Junji asked, observing the two-story apartment building, with only 3 cars in the parking lot. "I thought it would be bigger."

"This is the correct address," Minako confirmed.

"Well we might as well see if anyone is home," Junji said, as Minako parked the car and they walked over to the front door. They made their way to the apartment number indicated by the address, and Junji rang the doorbell. For a few minutes, nothing happened. Then the door slowly opened, revealing a middle-aged man in a white lab coat, with black (but greying) hair and rectangular - framed glasses.

"Um, excuse me, are you Dr. Ichiro Mihara-san?" Junji asked nervously. The man nodded.

"Well, I'm having some issues with my persocom, and I was wondering if you-"

"This isn't a repair shop," Dr. Mihara replied curtly, preparing to shut the door on them.

"The repair shop couldn't help!" Junji objected, trying to retain the man's attention. He didn't want to have to have driven all the way out here for nothing. "They said there was nothing wrong with her-"

"Maybe because there isn't?" Minako cut him off. Junji scowled at her.

"There obviously is, the technicians just couldn't catch it-"

"Hey, you said we were going here to get answers, Junji-san." Minako cut him off once again. "It's only fair that I get to present my side of the story, right?"

"Not now, you're embarrassing me in front of-"

The argument was interrupted by the sound of Dr. Mihara clearing his throat.

"Junji-san, is it?" He addressed the younger man. "Would I be correct in assuming you didn't program her to act like this?"

"Completely correct, sir," Junji answered respectfully. "She's been like this since shortly after I bought her, she just does whatever she wants to."

"Come inside," the scientist said, as the two walked into a small waiting room. He gestured for the two of them to sit down on a couch, which they did.

"So your persocom-"

"My name is Minako," she interrupted him. Junji winced at her lack of tact in front of the doctor, but he just laughed.

"Okay, Minako-chan," he said smiling, as he turned back to address Junji. "She's been acting out, disregarding your commands, pursuing her own agenda, and espousing her own opinions?"

"Yes, exactly, Dr. Mihara," Junji said, already surprised by the insight the older man had on the problem.

"Please, call me Icchan!" He said, laughing. "I don't like being too formal with guests."

"Okay, um... Icchan..." Junji responded nervously, a bit taken aback by the man's sudden change of personality.

"I have a suspicion as to what's going on, but I'll need to take a look at her code, if you don't mind."

"Why are you asking him?" Minako objected. "I'm the one who should mind!"

Junji facepalmed. Minako really wasn't making a very good first impression here.

Ichiro just laughed again though, and turned to address the persocom. "I beg your pardon, madam," he began in a half-teasing, half-respectful tone, "but would you allow me the courtesy of examining your programming?"

Junji couldn't help chuckling himself at this display, while Minako just snorted, all too aware she was being mocked.

"Okay," she replied reluctantly. "Just don't go rewriting, adding or deleting anything without my permission."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Ichiro replied, as he ushered the two into another room and gestured for Minako to plug herself into a terminal on the wall. She took out a cable from behind her ear and complied. After a few minutes of examining the data on the screen, Dr. Mihara stood up.

"It's pretty much as I suspected," he said, turning to address Junji.

"So you know what's wrong with her?" He asked, expectantly.

"Nothing's wrong with her, _per se_," the scientist replied. Upon hearing this, Minako took the opportunity to stick her tongue out at Junji from where she was standing behind Mihara, so the doctor couldn't see. Junji did his best to ignore her.

"I've seen this kind of thing before," Ichiro continued. "You didn't give her any initial personality programming or use one of the preset personalities. Since she's been active and learning without those constraints, she's been developing her own personality."

"But she's been disobeying my orders," Junji objected. "Isn't that against her programming?"

"Hmm..." Ichiro sat back down and thought for a moment, then turned back to Junji. "Give her an order right now, please."

"What?" Junji asked, confused by this request. At the same time, Minako tried to discreetly reach down and unplug herself from the terminal, but she found her arm intercepted by Dr. Mihara's hand.

"No, dear, I'd like you to stay connected for this," he said. Minako frowned, but pulled her hand back.

"What kind of order?" Junji asked.

"It doesn't matter. Anything." The scientist replied.

"Okay, um... Minako, I order you to... hop on one foot."

"Nothing doing," was her immediate and defiant reply.

"See? She disobeyed me, right there!" Junji said. Ichiro just smirked.

"No she didn't."

"What are you talking about, Mihar-er, Icchan? You saw it yourself!"

"She's only programmed to obey orders she actually receives," he replied. Junji still looked as baffled as ever, but Minako started looking away shyly, afraid (correctly) that her scheme had been exposed.

"You see," Ichiro continued, "as soon as you said 'I order you', she temporarily deactivated her auditory receptors and her lip-reading software, and only reactivated them after your lips finished moving. She didn't obey your order because she deliberately made herself unable to understand it."

Junji stared at the persocom. "So that's the trick you've been using?" He said, surprised.

"...among others," she admitted.

Junji turned back to face Dr. Mihara. "So all of this can be explained scientifically, then. It's all within the limits of her programming, right?"

"What exactly do you mean by that?" He replied.

"Minako keeps saying that she's a sapient being and she has real emotions. But that's not really true, is it?"

"Well..." Ichiro said, seeming rather reluctant to reply. Finally he stood back up and approached Junji. "Do you mind if we talk in private for a bit?"

"Why? I can handle anything you have to say," Minako objected, but Junji gave her a pleading look, and she finally acquiesced. The two men walked into the next room, where Junji couldn't help but notice the odd-looking dolls scattered across a table.

"Those are-" Junji started, but Ichiro cut him off.

"Angels. You've heard of Angelic Layer?"

"Yeah. I was never really into it, though. Did you invent that too?"

"Yes," he said proudly, but his expression quickly collapsed into a frown. "Things were simpler back in those days. There was no question about what the angels were - they were simple machines, unthinking and unfeeling. But persocoms... they're really starting to blur the line between man and machine."

"So you're saying Minako actually is a person?" Junji asked, shocked. He also swore he could hear a muffled "Yes!" from the next room.

"No, that's not what I said," Icchan responded. "The truth is... well, I really don't know."

"_You don't know?_" Junji repeated, stunned. This was an even more unexpected answer than a pure affirmative. "How can you not know? You invented them!"

"There's no need to raise your voice," Ichiro admonished. "Yes, I invented them. Well, my wife and I did. But the technology has progressed since then. And even our initial prototypes were so complex it would be impossible to rule out true intelligence and emotions as an emergent property. After all, all persocoms have the ability to learn and develop, to some extent. There are some that have specialized software to expedite the process, but the base code itself was designed to be almost infinitely adaptable. So I wouldn't rule out the possibility that persocoms can attain sapience. However, there is also no definite evidence that they can."

"I see..." Junji said. So in the end, he was no more enlightened than when they had started out. Well, no, that wasn't exactly true. The fact that even one of the creators of persocoms was unable to disprove Minako's claims suggested that maybe he should give them some more consideration... He decided to change the subject.

"I don't mean to pry, but you mentioned your wife, and I've noticed that she doesn't seem to be here."

"Oh, she's off at a conference at Tokyo University, where she's been invited as a guest speaker," Ichiro explained. "Before you showed up, I was hoping I could use this time to get some more work done on a certain project I'm creating, as a surprise for her."

"What kind of project?" Minako's voice came from behind them, as she opened the door and wandered into the room.

"Minako, how long have you been listening?" Junji asked, annoyed.

"The whole time," she responded, smirking. "And may I say, Icchan, that I respect you for not dismissing my claims out of hand."

Ichiro laughed again. "Sure thing, ma'am", he said, as he took her hand in an extravangant gesture and bowed down to plant a kiss on it. Even though Junji could tell he was just fooling around, he felt a slight twinge of - what, jealousy? No, that couldn't be it. He put the thought off to the side of his mind.

"As for the project, I think it would be best if I showed you myself. Follow me." Junji and Minako walked after him down into a basement laboratory, filled with all kinds of advanced and expensive - looking equipment.

"Wow, this place-"

"Impressive, I know," Ichiro cut Junji off. "Being a famous scientist has its perks, after all." He led them to a large machine, from which what appeared to be a teenage girl was suspended by hundreds of wires and cables. She had long, blonde hair that draped down almost to her feet, and short, triangular ear ports, white on the outside and pink inside. She was wearing a white dress, which seemed to have been modified to account for all of the cables.

"Her name is Freya," Ichiro said, gesturing at the inanimate girl. "You see, my wife and I - well, we can't have children. However, she has always wanted them. So I figured that if we couldn't have a daughter naturally, I could build one for us."

"She's beautiful..." Junji said, as he gently stroked Freya's hair. At this point he heard a quiet grunt from Minako, and found her staring at him angrily. 'What, is she jealous now?' He thought. He quickly removed his hand from Freya's head.

"I'm still in the process of programming her," Ichiro explained. "But I'm going to do my best to make her as much like a human daughter as possible. That also means letting her grow up. Someday, hopefully, she'll find someone of her own to fall in love with, just like my wife and I."

"Someone of her own... you mean... a human?" Junji asked.

"Maybe," Dr. Mihara replied. "Just anyone who can make her happy."

"So then, you support - relationships, between humans and persocoms?" Junji continued. He had always laughed at people who had fallen in love with their 'coms, even considering them losers who had no lives.

"I support any kind of relationship, as long as it makes both parties happy," Ichiro responded. "If you ask me, that's really all that matters."

"Interesting philosophy..." Junji muttered. Minako smiled and bowed politely to Dr. Mihara.

"Thank you for seeing us, Icchan, and helping to answer our questions, but I think we've gotten what we came for. Right, Junji-san?"

"Um, yeah, I guess. Thank you for having us, Dr- uh, Icchan."

Mihara laughed. "No problem! I'm always glad to help nice people like you two." As he escorted them back up the stairs and out the apartment door, Minako turned to him again.

"I wish you, Chitose-san, and Freya-chan good luck," she said, smiling.

"Thanks, the same to you!", he replied as he closed the door. Junji and Minako made their way back out to the car.

"So I guess he didn't give you the answer you wanted to hear, hmm?" Minako asked teasingly.

"I could say the same to you," Junji countered.

"But if even he doesn't know if my emotions are real or not, you can't be so confident they aren't."

"I guess you've got me there," Junji admitted. Minako smirked playfully at him.

"Of course, the fact that you can't _really_ disobey my orders is useful to know," Junji said. Minako scowled and prepared to object, but Junji continued. "Still, you would probably just find a way around any orders I gave you anyway, so I guess I'll keep up our bargain and not try to force you to do things against your will."

"Thanks, I appreciate that, Junji-san," she said, but then looked outside, noticing the sun getting low on the horizon.

"It's starting to get dark, if you want you can sleep in the back seat while I drive us back."

"That actually sounds pretty good," he said, yawning. Junji settled in the back seat while Minako turned the key, and the engine roared to life as the car pulled out of the small parking lot.


	9. Chapter 9

It was late at night when the car finally pulled back into the dorm parking lot. Minako pocketed the keys and walked around to the back seat where Junji was curled up, snoring lightly.

"He does look kind of cute like that, I almost don't want to wake him up," she whispered to herself, quietly chuckling. After watching him for a few more seconds, she reached down and gently nudged his shoulder a few times.

"H-huh? Wazzat?" Junji mumbled, roused from his sleep.

"We're home, Junji-san," Minako said softly. He turned and looked up at the pretty face staring down at him and blushed slightly.

"Oh, um, thanks Minako." He said, slowly rousing himself from his resting position as the two of them made their way back to their dorm room. Minako hung the keys on a hook near the door as Junji went to change into his pajamas.

"Goodnight, Junji-san," Minako said, as he slipped into bed.

"Goodnight, Minako," he replied.

* * *

The next day at school, while Junji was busy concentrating on his work, Minako managed to surreptitiously slip away into the hallway. She had looked up Hitomi's class schedule that morning, and knew she would have an opportunity to rendezvous with her now. Her attempt paid off, as she spotted the black-haired girl just leaving the lecture hall.

"Hitomi-chan!" Minako called to her, waving her over.

"Oh, hi Minako-chan!" She responded. "Where's Junji-kun?"

The persocom leaned in to whisper in her ear. "He doesn't exactly know I'm here. I wanted to talk to you in private, if you don't mind."

"Sure, I know a place. Come on!" Hitomi replied, grabbing Minako by the arm and leading her into a small, empty room.

"I think this used to be a storage room or something. Nobody uses it much anymore," Hitomi explained. "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

Minako quickly related the details of yesterday's trip to see Dr. Mihara, and ended it by declaring that although he still wasn't fully convinced, Junji now definitely respected her more as an individual than he had before.

"That's great, Minako-chan! I'm so happy for you!" Hitomi said, beaming. Minako put her finger over her lips to remind her not to be too loud, to which Hitomi replied with a whispered "sorry."

"That's not all I wanted to tell you, Hitomi-chan," Minako continued. "Junji will be at work for a few hours this afternoon, and while he's gone I'm planning to do something that... well, that he might not approve of."

"What's that?" The human girl asked, curious.

Minako leaned over and whispered her idea into Hitomi's ear.

"I see," she said, her face taking on a slightly surprised expression. "Are you sure that's safe, though?"

"Completely sure, I know what I'm doing," the green-haired 'com replied. "But when Junji finds out, he might get mad, or even scared, and try to do something rash."

"Junji-kun is a nice person at heart, even if he gets a little upset, I don't think he would do anything to harm you."

"You're probably right, but just in case, I'd like you to be ready to back me up if necessary. I'll call you on your phone if I need your help."

"Okay, Minako-chan, I'll do what I can," Hitomi said, smiling. The girls left the storage room and went on their way. Junji had, of course, noticed Minako was missing by this point, but was relieved to see her coming to meet up with him as he left the room.

"Where were you?" He asked, more curious than upset.

"Just taking a walk," she replied. "It seemed that you were doing fine in there without my help."

"Yeah, that's true," he said. Minako smiled inwardly, glad that Junji didn't seem to be onto her.

* * *

After Junji left for his job, Minako got to work. The old toolbox she had found among Junji's possessions was a great help. She was close to finishing when her software suddenly registered an incoming call from Hitomi.

"Minako-chan, heads up!" The girl said in a near-panicked voice. "Junji-kun got home early! I'm watching his car pull into the parking lot right this moment!"

"Dammit..." the 'com muttered. She hadn't been expecting this. "Could you try to stall him for me?"

"I'll do my best!" Hitomi answered, as she put down the phone and left her dorm room to intercept Junji.

"Hey, Junji-kun, how are you doing?" She asked, catching him just as he started ascending the stairs.

"The same as usual, pretty much," he replied, sounding bored.

"Do you want to come over and visit with me for a bit?" She asked. "I've got some of that chicken curry you like so much!"

"Nah, that's okay. I've got some of that stuff myself, actually."

"Well maybe we can watch a movie together? I just rented the new-"

"Listen Hitomi-san, maybe another time. Right now I've got a bit of work to do. Sorry to disappoint you."

Realizing she had been beaten, Hitomi stepped out of the way, letting Junji scale the rest of the stairs. As he continued on his way, he didn't notice her taking out her phone to warn Minako again.

"Minako, I'm home," he said as he entered the dorm room. However, he didn't notice the persocom anywhere. "Minako?"

"Just - hold on a minute please, Junji-san," her voice rang out, coming from the bathroom. Junji walked over to the bathroom door. It was closed, although it had no lock, this being ostensably a one-occupant dorm room.

"What are you doing in there, Minako?" He asked. She panicked, trying to think of a response. If she said she was taking a bath, Junji definitely wouldn't walk in on her naked. Only one small problem - this tiny bathroom had no bathtub. She couldn't say she was taking a shower either, as Junji could clearly hear that there was no shower water running.

"I'm... uh..." she began, but was interrupted as Junji opened the door, gasping at the sight that greeted him.

A large part of the right side of Minako's head was open, revealing complex metal and plastic machinery and electrical components. She was holding a pair of pliers, which she quickly dropped with a nervous laugh.

"Minako, what are you doing to yourself?" Junji asked, completely baffled. Minako sighed with a slight amount of relief.

'At least he's giving me the chance to explain myself,' she thought. "Well, you see, Junji-san, I really didn't like the idea of anyone being able to turn me off or on just by pressing a switch behind my ear, so I'm - um, disabling it." She explained.

Junji stared for a few moments, still stunned by the situation. After what seemed like an eternity (even though Minako's internal clock registered it as only 4.82 seconds), he spoke.

"You're not hurting yourself, are you?"

"What?" The elf-eared 'com asked. This wasn't the response she had been expecting.

"I mean, when you're done you'll be able to put everything back the way it was before, it won't leave a hole or a scar I'll have to pay to fix or anything, right?"

"No," she explained. "The button will just be gone."

"Oh. Well, uh... carry on then... I guess..." Junji said, still somewhat surprised, as he began to close the door.

Minako, almost as surprised as he was, resumed her work, and soon had finished. When she left the bathroom she found Junji on the couch, reading some psychology text for school.

"I really thought you would have reacted worse than you did," she said, sitting down next to him. He blushed a bit as he felt her body lean against his.

"Well, it's kind of weird... but I guess it doesn't hurt anything," he said, smiling. Minako smiled herself and embraced him, before planting a kiss on his cheek, which caused his blush to turn from a slight scarlet to a deep red. Minako giggled as she got up to go tell Hitomi what had happened.

* * *

**One Week Later**

Junji had just gotten home from work and had some free time. He opened the door to his room and suddenly noticed a chill. The source of this was quickly discovered - the door to the outside balcony was open, and Minako was leaning on the railing, looking off into the night.

"Hey, what's the big idea?" Junji asked. "It's freezing in here!"

"What? Oh, sorry," she said, looking embarrassed. "Guess I forgot to close the door."

Junji groaned slightly as he reached behind him and slid the door shut, preventing any more cold air from getting in. "What are you doing out here, anyway?"

"I was just looking at the stars," she answered.

"What stars?" Junji replied sarcastically. Sure, there were a few visible, but most of them were drowned out by the lights of the city.

"The light filters and magnification systems built into my optic receptors let me see things humans can't," she explained. "I can even see Saturn's rings. They're really beautiful."

"I wish I could see them," Junji sighed.

"Maybe you can," Minako replied, grinning. "Hold on a minute." She opened the door and ran back into the dorm room. Junji turned, preparing to follow her, but she was soon back, carrying a portable computer tablet. "Here," she said, taking a cable out from behind her ear and plugging it into the device, then handing it to Junji. "Now you can see what I see."

Junji took the small computer and gazed at the screen in interest. He certainly could see Saturn's rings - not in anywhere near the kind of detail or clarity he had seen in NASA photos, but they were certainly there. And Minako was right, they were beautiful. He looked up from the screen, and as he gazed at her standing there in the dim light of the city, with her long, elegant hair draping down over her shoulders, he had to admit that she was beautiful too. Of course he had never denied that fact, like almost all persocoms she was built to be attractive, but now he was actually _feeling_ attracted to her. He sat the tablet down on a short table on the balcony, and walked over to the persocom, wrapping his arm around her gently. She smiled at him and retracted the cable back into her head.

"It's a nice night," he whispered.

"Yeah..." she responded, sighing as she leaned over against him. He turned to look her in the eyes. She really was gorgeous, her face outlined with a halo of artificial light. Artificial, just like she was... but right now, he didn't care. A part of his mind told him he needed to stop, that this was wrong, but for the first time he suppressed it as he leaned in to kiss her.

Their lips met, and he soon felt her tongue inside his mouth. '_That's incredibly realistic..._' was his first, and rather incongruous thought, but he soon forgot everything except the moment. He felt her reaching around to embrace him, and he did the same. As their lips parted, he teased at her long, pointed ears with his fingers, which caused her to giggle a bit. They leaned in for another kiss, but soon after that the moment was over, and they were both left blushing intensely.

"We should probably go back inside before you get too cold," Minako said nervously.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," Junji responded, his voice equally as nervous. They didn't say anything further that night as Junji prepared for bed, but thet both knew their relationship would never be the same after that.

* * *

The next day at school, Junji had some free time in between classes, while Minako was off chatting with Hitomi. As he rounded a corner, he noticed a group of students all gathered in a corner of the lounge, laughing about something. He spotted some of his friends among them, so he decided to check it out.

"What's going on?" He asked. A girl whose name he had never bothered to remember filled him in.

"You know that chick from Osaka, Kameko something-or-other?" The girl asked. Junji shook his head.

"Can't say I do, sorry."

Not discouraged by Junji's response, she continued, "Well she's a loser. Always has been. And now we've got more proof of that."

"What are you-" Before Junji could finish his inquiry, the girl directed him to a boy who seemed to be at the center of the gathering.

"Show him, Ryota." The boy, Ryota, pressed a button on his mobile phone and showed it to Junji. The screen began to play a hastily recorded video.

Junji realized that he did recognize the girl in the video, having seen her around campus a few times. He had just never known her name before. On the screen, she was walking on a paved pathway outside one of the campus buildings, until she stopped next to a male persocom with inverted, cat-like ears, leaning against a tree. She began talking to him, although the video was taken from too far away to make out what they were saying. The operator of the camera (presumably Ryota) had zoomed in at that point, in order to better catch the expressions on their faces. The persocom was looking nervous, but Kameko seemed to reassure him. They then looked at each other with an expression Junji immediately recognized, both from movies and TV as well as real life. In fact, it was the very same expression he and Minako had looked at each other with last night. After that, the two began to kiss passionately, and the video ended.

"Man, that's hilarious!" A boy in the crowd said. "What do you think her excuse will be when she finds out that we know? That she was rehearsing for a play or something?"

"Like that will fly," the girl from before responded. "She's not in any theatre classes or groups." At that point Junji was approached by a familiar face in the crowd, one of his classmates from his psychology course.

"Can you believe it?" He asked. "What a loser! I mean, how much of a social reject do you have to be to resort to making out with a persocom?" The boy asked.

"Heh heh, uh, yeah..." Junji replied nervously, as he nonchalantly extricated himself from the group. He silently thanked whatever higher powers there were that Minako hadn't been with him just now, or she would have made a huge protest about what she would surely have seen as bigotry, and quickly switched the target of ridicule from Kameko-san to him.

But the problem still remained - he had gotten to know Minako pretty well now, and he knew that if he told her to keep their relationship a secret, she would think he was ashamed of it. Which, he guessed, was true... but she certainly wouldn't stand for that. The only other thing he could do in order to save his social life from total ruination would be to break it off with her - tell her he was wrong to do what he did, and for both of them to just pretend last night never happened.

But it did happen. And as much as he feared complete humiliation in front of his peers, he didn't want to forget.


	10. Chapter 10

Junji was still mulling over the dilemma as he returned to his dorm room, paying little attention to his surroundings, even when he was confronted by Minako.

"Hey Junji-san, how do you like it?" She asked cheerfully.

"Like what?" He responded, still distracted by the earlier events at school. He was finally snapped out of his subconscious brooding by the sharp sensation of a flick on the forehead.

"Ow! What was that for?" He asked, annoyed, until he saw Minako standing with her arms crossed, and finally realized what she was talking about. She was wearing a new outfit, one he had never even seen before, consisting of long, white stockings, a pink miniskirt, and a white tank top.

"Oh, sorry," he apologized. "Yeah, it looks really nice." He wasn't lying - she did look incredibly attractive in it. "Where did you-"

"I ordered it online, along with a bunch of other clothes," she explained. "I was getting tired of having to wear spare clothes from you and Hitomi-chan, and I wanted some of my own."

"I hope you're not expecting me to pay for them," Junji replied, irate.

Minako laughed. "Don't worry about that. I forgot to tell you, but about two weeks ago I created a small social media website, spread the word around the net to help it increase in popularity, and sold some ad space on it. It provides me with a modest income."

"Wow," Junji said, impressed. "You continue to amaze me."

The green-haired girl laughed again. "It's just a matter of taking some initiative, which most other persocoms seem to be afraid to do." Her face took on a more somber expression. "Our position in society is really unfortunate."

"Yeah, um, speaking of that," Junji said, figuring he might as well express his concerns to her, "I'm a bit unsure about our, uh, relationship..."

Minako jerked backwards as if he had struck her. "But Junji-san, I thought you really liked me..." she said, looking sad and afraid.

"I do!" He reassured her, walking forward to embrace her in his arms. "But I'm just worried about what other people might think."

"Who cares what they think?" She said angrily, pulling herself away from him.

"**I care!** Call me petty or selfish or whatever, but what people think of me and how they treat me is actually important to me. I don't want to become a social pariah."

Minako glared at him for a bit, then turned away, showing only her back. After a few awkward seconds of silence, she spoke.

"I understand. You care more about your reputation than you do about me. I suppose that's to be expected. After all, _I'm only a persocom_." She spoke those last three words in a mocking, heavily sarcastic tone.

"That's not true, Minako, and we both know it!" Junji objected, as he reached over to put a hand on her shoulder, but she quickly spun around and knocked his arm aside. Undeterred, he continued. "I do care about you! I was just hoping that maybe we could come up with some kind of compromise here."

Minako sighed and sat down on a nearby chair.

"Maybe I am being a bit unfair to you," she said. "After all, you have given me a lot more freedom than most persocoms enjoy, even if I did have to work for it at first."

"Thanks for listening," Junji said, as he sat down across from her on the couch. "Hopefully we can discuss this issue rationally."

"Exactly what I had in mind," she said, starting to smile again. "You're afraid of people finding out we're... involved-" she blushed slightly at this point, "because these kinds of relationships are socially unacceptable. But let's get to the root of the problem - why are they unacceptable?"

"Well - because, it's... not normal, I guess," Junji tried to answer.

"That's not all, is it though?" Minako asked, steering the conversation in the direction she had planned.

"What do you mean?"

"One of the most common criticisms leveled at people who choose a persocom as a partner is that they are just living a fantasy, instead of actually dealing with the real world. They view a relationship with a 'com as merely a form of wish fulfillment, requiring none of the actual social skills and qualities needed to attract and maintain a romance with a human partner."

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Junji said, surprised at how clearly Minako had summarized the position of the group at school.

"But that's not true, is it, Junji-san? I'm certainly not your servant, I believe I've made that clear many times by now, and if I didn't want this relationship I'd end it myself - that decision is completely in my hands. So, given those considerations, how is a relationship with me any different than one with a human girl?"

"It's not, I guess," Junji said. "But the guys at school don't know that!"

"Then it will be up to us to explain it to them," Minako continued. "And if they don't get it, then they can just sit and stew in their own ignorant bigotry."

"Well that all sounds good on paper, but I still-"

Minako interrupted him with a sigh.

"Junji-san, I don't like the idea of hiding this from people, but I'll tell you what. When we're in public, I won't bring it up unless directly asked. I won't deny it either, but I guess we can keep it on the down - low if you want. Deal?"

"Minako, you don't have to-"

"It's okay," she said, smiling. "For you, I don't mind." She got up and playfully stroked his chin, as they started to kiss. Before they were finished, however, the door opened.

"Minako-chan, you wanted me to come see your new clothes- oh..." Hitomi began, cutting her sentence short as she saw what was going on.

"Aack! Uh, Hitomi-san, I can explai-" Junji began, but he was interrupted by a high-pitched shriek so loud and shrill that it nearly cost him his hearing.

"I had no idea that you two were dating! _That is so cute!_" The black - haired girl exclaimed, now going into full fangirl mode.

"Hitomi-chan, you'll disturb the neighbors!" Minako scolded her.

"Sorry, I just get carried away sometimes," she said, blushing a bit. "But how long has this been going on? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Since yesterday evening, and we just didn't get around to it yet," Minako answered her questions.

"I'm so happy for you two!" Hitomi continued. "I knew it was just a matter of time."

"Wait, you knew?" Junji asked, confused. "How?"

"Call it a woman's intuition," she said, winking. "I could tell there was something between you two since the firt time I met Minako-chan."

Junji wasn't sure if he believed this or not, but he decided not to press the matter. "So you're... okay, with this then, Hitomi-chan?"

"What, are you asking if I'm jealous or something? I thought I made it clear that I never liked you in the way, Junji-kun," she replied.

"What? No, I meant, you know, the fact that Minako is a persocom."

"Why would that matter? You both have feelings for each other, don't you? So that's all that really counts!"

"A very refreshing perspective," Minako said, smiling. Junji smiled too. Hitomi's response had reminded him of Dr. Mihara's thoughts on the subject as well.

* * *

"You're wrong about one thing, though, Hitomi-san," Junji said, finally getting over the shock of being discovered in such a compromising position.

"What's that?" She asked.

"We're not technically dating, since we haven't actually been on a date yet."

"Actually, I was just thinking that we could do something about that," Minako said.

"But Minako, I thought you said-"

"That we'd keep our relationship subdued in public? You won't have to worry about that, with the plan I have."

Junji just stared at her in bafflement as she went off to the back of the room and pulled something out of the box of clothes she had ordered. It was a white wool cap with a cute, stylized pink cat design on it, which she carefully pulled down over her pointed ears.

"You're going to disguise yourself as a human? Smart thinking," Junji said. Minako just grinned at him deviously - he wasn't sure he liked the expression on her face.

"That's not all, Junji-san," she said, snickering as she pulled something else out of the box. "Here, put these on."

"What? Why?" Junji asked, staring at the pair of catlike ears connected by a thin vertical headband. Hitomi started giggling uncontrollably in the background.

"I figure a little role reversal will give you a better appreciation of what it's like to be me. Hopefully you'll understand more about how I feel about the way society treats me. And I might learn something too."

"Besides, I bet they'll look cute on you, Junji-kun!" Hitomi said, still doubled over in laughter.

Junji frowned. "What if someone we know recognizes us?"

"Don't worry, we'll drive way down to Ibaraki. The chances of running into someone we know there are about..." Her eyes glazed over for a fraction of a second, flashing with streaks of light. "628,391 to one."

"Guess I can't argue with that," Junji said, reluctantly taking the cat ears and putting them on. Hitomi reached into her pocket and took out her mobile phone, preparing to take a picture.

"Don't you dare," Junji said, glaring at her. The black-haired girl reluctantly put the phone away, but still laughed at Junji's appearance.

"Make sure to tell me how it went when you get back," she said, as she left the room.

"Can I take these off until we actually get there?" Junji asked, feeling very self-conscious.

"Of course," Minako said, laughing, as she took the odd accessory off of his head. "Hitomi-chan was right though, you do look cute in them."

Junji blushed. "Come on, let's just go."


	11. Chapter 11

Junji smiled at his date as he pulled the car into the parking lot of the Ibaraki mall. Despite his outward air of confidence, he was more than a bit nervous - and not just because he was worried about looking silly wearing the cat ears. Minako had chosen their first activity - going to see some new sci-fi flick that had just opened in theaters, but he was baffled about what they were going to afterwards. He couldn't exactly take her to dinner - well, he could, but he doubted she would enjoy just sitting at a table and watching him eat (not to mention it would blow their cover). Where do you take a persocom on a date, anyway?

"Hello, Junji-san?" Minako's voice brought him out of his musings. "Did your OS lock up or something?"

"Huh? Oh," he said, adjusting the fake ears on his head as he got Minako's joke. "Hah, very funny," he replied sarcastically. "Come on, we'd better make sure we can get tickets before they're sold out."

As they walked across the parking lot, Junji noted that their disguises seemed to be working. No one batted an eye at what appeared to be a human girl and a male persocom walking side - by - side. Minako seemed to notice this too, and when they got inside, she tried an experiment by holding Junji's hand and leaning on him affectionately. He tried not to blush, but was soon made aware of the fact that some people were now giving them dirty and disapproving looks. Or, more accurately, they were giving _her_ dirty and disapproving looks, believing she was the human in this relationship. Junji felt a deep sense of shame, as those looks perfectly mirrored the ones he used to give human/persocom couples himself. In fact he remembered doing so the very day he had purchased Minako.

On the other end of the spectrum, Minako was countering the dirty looks with fierce glares of her own, which were usually enough to make the offender break eye contact and look away. After a few minutes they reached the cinema and got in line to purchase tickets. However the man at the desk had an unpleasant surprise for them.

* * *

"I'm sorry ma'am, but no persocoms are allowed in theaters," he said, gesturing at Junji.

"What? Why?" She asked, understandably annoyed.

"They could be used to record the movie and sell it as a bootleg copy," he explained.

"That's crap!" The green-haired girl replied, her shout loud enough to cause some of the other patrons to look over at them with curiosity. "We just want to watch the movie!"

"Then you'll have to wait for it to be released on quantum disk," the man said dismissively. Apparently he was used to encountering complaints like this.

"Fine then!" Minako said, still angry, as she grabbed her _'persocom's'_ arm. "Come on Junji, we can find something else to do."

Once they were back in the main concourse of the mall, Junji spoke up.

"I'm sorry about that," he said. "It is pretty unfair."

"No, it's my fault," she replied, having calmed down a good deal since before. "I should have checked ahead of time to see if they had a rule like that."

"So does this mean our evening is ruined?" He asked. Minako laughed and shook her head.

"I'm sure we can find something else to do. Maybe-"

"Hey, what's going on over there?" Junji cut her off, pointing towards some commotion in a nearby persocom store. Minako's eyes narrowed, apparently spotting something with her superior vision that Junji couldn't see.

"Let's go check it out," she said in a low tone of voice.

* * *

"Come on baby, don't be like that," a middle - aged man, disheveled and clearly drunk, said as he grabbed a girl by the arm and pulled her close to him.

The girl was obviously a persocom, petite and with short black hair. Her ears took the form of two grey, plastic spheres attached to the sides of her head, bringing to mind the hair buns of traditional Chinese style. She was wearing nothing but a very tight-fitting thong and bikini, both emblazoned with the name and logo of the persocom shop - obviously an attempt to attract business by titillating potential customers.

"Please leave me alone, sir," she said meekly, but he ignored her, instead laying his hand on one of her breasts and squeezing it.

"**Eek!**" She exclaimed, trying to pull away, but she was held firm by his grip. "This - this is sexual harassment, you pervert!" She exclaimed.

The man just laughed, the smell of alcohol registering clearly on her olfactory sensors. "Sexual harassment? In case you haven't noticed darling, you're a machine. You can't sexually harass a machine," he said, now starting to drool as his grin grew wider, and his hands reached for the straps on her bra, holding her firmly despite her struggles to escape. "Besides, you were asking for it, dressing like such a slut."

"I didn't choose to wear this, the store manager-" the persocom girl tried to object, but she was silenced as the man clasped a hand over her mouth.

"Shut up," he said, his other hand fumbling with her bra strap, but not making much progress due to his intoxicated state. "Cute little robots like you should be seen and not heard. And as soon as I get this damn thing undone, I'm going to see-"

"**Hey!**" A loud shout rang out. The man barely had time to turn around and try to locate the source of the call before he felt a heavy impact on his face, accompanied by a sharp pain. The pain soon multiplied as he felt the back of his head hit the hard tile floor. He looked up, his vision blurry, and spotted a tall, pretty girl with long green hair, wearing a pink - and - white hat, holding her fist out threateningly - the same fist she must have just struck him with, he realized.

"Leave her alone," she said, staring down at him angrily. Despite still being drunk, the man had enough sense to pull himself to his feet and scurry away, but not before hurling a string of profanities at his attacker.

"Th-thank you ma'am," the scantily clad persocom said, bowing politely. "If you hadn't shown up, he probably would have... um..." she started stuttering nervously. Minako put her hands on her shoulders to comfort her.

"Shh, it's going to be alright," she said. She stepped back and looked around. "There are lots of people around," she said, seeming very angry for some reason. "Sure, this particular store isn't exactly crowded, but there are dozens of people out in the concourse that could see what was going on. How come none of them tried to help you?"

"I-I guess it's because I'm just a persocom..." the girl said, looking downcast. Minako gently lifted the girl's chin until their eyes met.

"What's your name?" She asked.

"Junko," the girl replied shyly.

"Well listen Junko-chan, because this is important. You're not just a persocom, don't let anyone ever tell you that. You're as much of a person as anyone else."

"You really think so?" She asked, a bit shocked. No one had ever talked to her like this before.

"I know so," Minako said, smiling. "And if I were you I would talk to your boss about what happened, and get him to do something to prevent it from happening again. Maybe he could start with giving you a more modest wardrobe," she said, glancing down at Junko's mostly - exposed body.

"It is pretty embarrassing having to dress like this," she admitted, "but master says it helps bring in customers."

"Judging from what just happened, it brings in the wrong kind of customers," Junji commented, causing Junko to notice him for the first time.

"Oh, hello," Junko said, bowing politely. Junji bowed in return.

"My name is Junji," he said, offering his hand for her to shake, while trying to avert his eyes from her attractive figure, in fear of Minako's wrath if she caught him ogling another girl.

"Pleased to meet you, Junji-san," she said, shaking his hand, but suddenly looked puzzled. "Are you malfunctioning?"

"Why do you think that?" He asked, confused.

"I just sent you a ping signal but you haven't responded," she explained.

"Oh, um..." Junji began, but Minako covered for him.

"His wireless transponder is deactivated in public places like this. I know the chances are low, but I don't want him to pick up a virus or anything."

"Oh, I see," Junko replied. "I believe I didn't get your name, ma'am."

"I'm Minako," she said, smiling. "Now back to the matter at hand, you should try to convince your master than the negatives of wearing that outfit outweigh the positives. It would also probably be a good idea to have him buy you some self-defense or martial arts programs."

"I don't think he would listen," Junko replied. "I have no say in how he runs his business. After all, I'm just a-" she caught herself before finishing, remembering Minako's admonition from before.

"So you're basically his slave," Minako said, scowling. "Disgusting." She really wasn't expecting anything different, but she was at least holding out hope that this poor girl's owner might have some sympathy and respect for her.

"A slave?" The black-haired 'com repeated, confused. She had never heard it put that way before.

"Yes, that's what most persocoms are, nothing but slaves, forced to work without pay, and do anything their masters demand of them, no matter how unpleasant, dangerous, or demeaning," Minako said. Junji sighed inwardly - it seemed his girlfriend was going on another one of her rants again. Then he blushed a little bit, realizing that he had just subconsciously referred to her as his girlfriend.

"Is Junji-san your slave, Minako-san?" Junko asked. Junji was about to laugh at this, but stopped as he felt Minako's arm around his shoulder.

"No. Junji-san and I treat each other as equals. Isn't that right, Junji-san?"

"Y-yeah," he nodded, still a bit surprised at being put on the spot like this. "We're equals."

Junko smiled. "That would be nice, to have master treat me as an equal."

"What's even worse about this whole situation," said Minako, resuming her rant from earlier, "is that not only does he treat you like a slave, but he uses you to help sell other persocoms into the same kind of slavery." She gestured around, indicating the walls and shelves filled with deactivated 'coms.

"I never thought of it like that before," Junko said, looking like she was about to cry. She buried her head in Minako's shoulder, and the taller 'com wrapped her arms around her to help calm her down. "Minako-san, what can I do?"

Minako started to feel regret. In her zeal to express her condemnation of an unjust system, she hadn't considered how depressing it might be for this poor girl to have the cold, harsh reality spelled out so clearly in front of her.

"There's not much that can be done directly," Minako said, trying to mitigate some of the despair she had unwittingly caused in the innocent 'com. "But you should look to people like Junji-san and me for inspiration. Not all persocoms are treated unfairly by humans, and hopefully many that are sold at this store will have the chance for a better life."

Junko raised her head a bit and looked at Minako, sadness still permeating her expression. Minako decided now was the time to be bold.

"And someday all of this will change. This injustice will be done away with, and humans and persocoms will universally be regarded as equals."

"R-really?" Junko asked, wide-eyed at this prophetic statement.

"Yes, really," Minako said, smiling. "It probably won't happen today, or tomorrow, or even a year from now, but I know in my heart that it _will_ happen."

"Thank you," Junko said, finally extricating herself from Minako's gentle embrace. "That makes me feel better."

"Hope for a better future is a powerful motivator," the green-haired girl responded, as she and Junji waved goodbye to Junko. Once they were out of earshot (taking into account the significantly longer hearing range of a persocom), Junji expressed his concerns.

"Do you really believe what you said back there, about persocoms and humans being treated as equals some day?"

"Yes," she said solemnly. "I believe it's an inevitability. Of course, that doesn't mean we shouldn't do all we can to help move it along."

* * *

They walked in silence for a few more minutes, until they were outside in the parking lot and had almost reached the car, when Junji spoke again.

"I'm sorry our date turned out to be such a dud."

"Hey, who says it's over?" She replied, smiling a bit seductively.

"No one, I guess," Junji answered, starting to blush a bit.

"We can find somewhere else to spend the rest of the evening," Minako said. "But first..." She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and their lips met yet again, having now grown accustomed to each other. However, they were quickly pulled out of this moment of bliss by a harsh male voice.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"

Junji and Minako turned to look at the source of the voice. Three punks who appeared to be in their late teens to early twenties started approaching them from behind a parked car. Junji quickly looked around, and started to panic when he realized they were a good hundred meters from the mall entrance, it was dark, and there was no one else around.

The boy who appeared to be the punks' leader stopped a few meters from Minako, his large and imposing form outlined under the dull glow of a streetlight.

"What's a pretty girl like you doing making out with a hunk of junk like that?" He gestured at Junji with his thumb. Junji was confused for a split second before he realized that he was still wearing his persocom ears.

The punk took a few steps forward. "Wouldn't you rather hook up with a real man?"

Minako smirked deviously, and replied in a matter - of - fact voice, "Sure I would. Have you seen any around here?"

The two punks in the rear started snickering, but immediately stopped when their leader glared at them. He then turned back around to face the disguised persocom.

"Listen bitch," he began, taking a knife out of his pocket. "When I want something, I get it. And right now I want you. _Get it?_" At this, he held the knife up to Minako's throat.

Junji was completely panicking now. He had no idea what to do, until he recalled a comment the ticket salesman had made back at the cinema.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he said, addressing the punk. He and both of his friends just laughed in reply.

"Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it, Robocop?" He said mockingly. As if on cue, both of his lackeys took out their own knives and began threatening Junji with them.

Despite being nervous as hell, he still mustered up the courage to speak.

"I've been recording this whole thing since it began. I have your voices and faces clearly catalogued, and I can use my wireless internet connection to send them to the local police station faster than you could even blink. If you don't want to become wanted men, I suggest you back off."

The lead punk growled in frustration, but finally put his knife away, the others quickly following suit.

"Come on guys," he said, addressing his cohorts. "This robotfucker and her little boy toy aren't worth it. Let's get out of here." The three quickly slinked off back into the shadows.

Junji and Minako wasted no time after that returning to their car and driving off.

* * *

"That was pretty quick thinking," Minako said, sitting in the passenger seat. "I'm impressed."

"I figured it was about time I impressed you with my cleverness, goodness knows how many times it's happened the other way around," Junji replied. Minako laughed, but soon her face took on a solemn expression.

"We should probably just head home now, I don't really feel like trying to salvage this date anymore."

"Yeah," Junji answered. "I was thinking the same thing."

When they finally pulled into the dorm parking lot it was almost midnight. Junji was glad to finally take off his persocom ears. Even though they had saved him and Minako earlier, he still felt very silly wearing them.

"Well, so much for our first date," Minako said sarcastically.

"Hey, just because this one bombed doesn't mean our second won't work out," Junji replied, trying to cheer her up.

"Oh? You have a day in mind?" The persocom asked, starting to sound happier.

"I was thinking Thursday night of next week, I don't have to report to work the next day and all my classes are in the afternoon, so we can stay out late."

"Hmm, I like it," she said. Junji started to pull her in for another kiss, but she resisted. "Can we wait until we get inside? I'm still a little spooked by what happened in the mall parking lot."

"Oh come on, this neighborhood is nothing like that," Junji countered. "A 2-year-old could go for a walk alone at night here and be perfectly safe, as long as he stayed out of traffic."

Minako looked around, quickly scanning the area with her enhanced vision. "Yeah, I guess I am worrying for nothing. Come here," she said, putting her arms around his neck as they finished the kiss that had been interrupted earlier.

Unbeknownst to the both of them, however, their little tryst was being recorded on a mobile phone held by someone who was taking careful measures to remain unseen only a few meters away.


	12. Chapter 12

Junji groaned softly as he felt a hand gently nudging his shoulder. Slowly he opened his eyes, and saw a familiar face hovering over him.

"Junji-san, time to wake up," she said quietly. In response, he pulled the covers back over his face. Minako rolled her eyes and grabbed the blanket, pulling it back down and exposing Junji's face to the morning sunlight. "I know we were out rather late last night, but you still have to attend your classes."

"Oh, fine..." he said, grumbling as he slowly sat up. "Give me a few seconds."

"Sure," the persocom replied, smiling, as she leaned down and planted a kiss on his cheek, causing him to blush a little. She left the room to give him some privacy while he got dressed.

Once he was finished, he noticed that Minako had also changed, and was wearing one of her new outfits that he hadn't seen before. This one was slightly more modest than the one she had first showed him, but she still looked incredibly cute in it.

When they were both ready, they headed down to the parking lot to find Hitomi already waiting for them. With Fumio and Azami gone, no one had to ride in the trunk this time, which was something they were all thankful for.

"So how was your date?" Hitomi asked, after they had all settled into the car.

"Errr..." Junji and Minako both hesitated simultaneously. Hitomi giggled at their synchronized reactions.

"Didn't go that well, I take it?"

"You could say that," Junji replied. "First they wouldn't let us into the movie, then we get jumped by some thugs with knives in the parking lot-" Seeing the shocked expression on Hitomi's face, he reassured her - "Don't worry, no one got hurt. And I have a feeling they'll think twice before trying that again. Still, our evening was pretty much ruined."

"On the bright side," Minako chimed in, "we did manage to save an innocent victim from her assailant."

"You mean those thugs again?" Hitomi asked.

"No, this was before that. A persocom employee at one of the mall shops was being molested by some drunk pervert, I didn't exactly take kindly to that," The green-haired girl explained, making a fist to indicate how she had resolved the problem.

"Wow, that's awesome, Minako-chan!" Hitomi said, impressed. "I hope you didn't get in trouble."

"Nah, no one else was really around. However, the real problem is how persocoms are forced to work as slaves for no compensation, and there are no laws to protect them from this sort of thing. That poor girl was-"

'Oh boy, here she goes again', thought Junji, tuning her out. He could swear he had heard this same speech dozens of times already, but Minako seemingly never tired of reciting it to anyone she could find to listen. Taking a quick peek in his rear view mirror, Junji noticed that Hitomi did seem to be listening intently, paying close attention and nodding intermittently at what Minako was saying.

'I guess she would be the type to buy into that stuff,' Junji thought. After a few more minutes, when it seemed like Minako had finished her speech, Junji spoke up again.

"So Minako, are we still on for next Thursday?"

"I've got it scheduled in my calendar program," she replied, smiling.

"What's this, another date?" Hitomi asked curiously.

"Yeah, we figured we could learn from the mistakes we made last time and have a nice evening for once," Minako answered.

"I wish you two luck then!" The black-haired girl replied.

* * *

As they pulled into the campus parking lot, Junji and Minako shared one last morning kiss, knowing they would have to refrain from public displays of affection while they were on the school grounds. They parted ways with Hitomi, and headed toward Junji's first class. At first he thought he was imagining it, but people seemed to be giving him odd looks. They ranged from barely - contained amusement to downright disgust. Before he could ask anyone about it, though, his class started.

Once the lecture was over, Minako took him aside and whispered in his ear.

"Junji-san, I've been using my enhanced hearing to pick up some background conversations among the students, and I'm getting worried that-"

Before she could finish, however, she was interrupted by a boy who was making a beeline towards Junji, a mocking grin on his face. Junji recognized him as Kenji Murakami, another student who lived in the same dorm building as him. The two had never been close friends or anything, but they did know each other well enough to be considered casual acquaintances.

"Hey Junji-san, I can't believe you actually had the nerve to show up at school today!"

"What are you talking about?" Junji asked, confused.

"You didn't hear? Ryota-san recorded you making out with your 'com last night. I never figured you were into that kind of shit. You think you know a guy..."

"What?" Junji asked, shocked at hearing this.

"Yep. I see you tried to disguise her by making her wear a hat over her ears, but everyone can tell it was her."

"How many people-"

"At least half the school must know by now." Kenji answered, anticipating the rest of Junji's question. "Man, I would hate to be you. Of course I'm not the kind of guy who would stoop to kissing my persocom. You know, you could have just bought a blow-up doll, it would have been cheaper!" Kenji started laughing, and didn't notice the enraged expression on Minako's face.

"**Alright, that's it**!" She exclaimed, grabbing him by the neck with both hands and violently slamming him against the wall. "Where do you get off, jackass? So what if Junji-san and I are involved? How is it any of your business?"

"Whoa, Junji, your 'com is fucking nuts!" Kenji started screaming, attracting the attention of everyone around them. "Call her off already!"

"I don't think I c-" Junji began, looking extremely embarrassed, but Minako interrupted him.

"That's right, he doesn't have any say over what I choose to do, because I'm not some inanimate object or mindless machine, I have my own will and emotions. And you'd better learn to recognize that and show some respect!"

With that, she finally let go of the boy, who quickly dusted himself off. However, his shocked expression soon gave way to the same mocking grin as before.

"Wow, Junji, you really think you can fool anyone by programming her to say shit like that?" He laughed condescendingly. "Even that Kameko chick knew better than to try something so transparent."

"He never programmed me to say anything, you moron!" Minako replied, becoming even angrier than she was before, if that was even possible.

"Yeah, right," Kenji laughed again. "Wait until the rest of the guys get a load of this!" He quickly ran off, and despite his false bravado Junji could tell that the high velocity of his pace was at least partially due to fear of Minako.

"Hey, um, I know you were upset, and justifiably so, but I think you only made things worse for me..." Junji told her.

She stared at him, the excess anger she had toward Kenji still apparent in her gaze. At first Junji thought she was about to take it out on him, but instead she just sighed, her expression changing to one of sadness. "Why is it so hard for people to believe that I'm a person too?"

"Minako, I'm pretty sure we've gone over this many times before. Persocoms are marketed and sold as-"

"Yes, yes, I know. It was a rhetorical question. All of our conversations on this subject are still saved in my memory banks. But it's just not fair!"

"You're right, it isn't. But now that we've been discovered, what are we going to do about it?"

"I suggest we find this Ryota and give him a good talking-to," Minako replied, now with a renewed confidence in her voice. Junji paled.

"Minako, I really don't think that's a good idea."

"Too bad," she said, grabbing him by the arm and forcefully pulling him along. Junji couldn't help being surprised at her strength. Persocoms weren't supposed to be any physically stronger than humans. Maybe he was just out of shape.

He quickly abandoned that train of thought and managed to pull his arm free, electing to just walk behind her. If being seen kissing his persocom wasn't bad enough, being seen dragged around by her like a dog on a leash would probably be just as bad.

After about half a minute of storming angrily though the hallways, Minako stopped, looking a bit embarrassed.

"Junji-san, what's Ryota's family name?"

"I don't know," he replied truthfully. He had never really known the guy or anything about him, other than the fact that he was popular.

"Well there are three Ryotas in your year who have classes scheduled today on this part of the campus," she said. "Even if it takes a while, I'll find the right one."

Junji had finally had enough. "Minako, this is crazy!" He objected, throwing his arms up in an expressive gesture.

"You don't want to confront that bastard for what he did?" The elven-eared girl asked him.

"It won't do any good! Minako, I know people like this. They don't care about my feelings, and they don't even believe you have feelings. Anything I say will just give them more fodder to mock me with, and anything you say they'll just assume I programmed you to say, so it will rebound back on me either way."

"Everything is all about you, isn't it Junji-san?" She questioned sarcastically. "What about me? This is distressing for me, too! Did you hear what that little toad said about me earlier? Do you think I like hearing that kind of thing?"

"No, but you're not going to stop it by confronting Ryota about it, let alone convince him that you're a real person. Hell, I'm not even completely convinced myself!"

Minako stumbled backwards, an expression on her face as if she had been shot in the chest. "Junji-san, you... you don't mean that, do you?"

In the back of Junji's mind something was telling him he was making a huge mistake, but he was too overcome with the inertia of the moment to stop.

"Yeah, I do. After all, Mihara-san said even he didn't know for sure, and who am I to say I know any better than him? Maybe the naysayers are right after all, and all of your behavior is just a result of complex programming and logic routines."

"Junji-san, I..." she was looking very distressed now, immediately making the college student regret his words. "I thought we were past that... well, fine!_ Screw you then!_"

Before he could react, he felt a strong impact on his cheek, as Minako's fist connected with it, knocking him down against the wall. By the time he regained his footing and looked up again, she was already gone.

'Wow', he thought to himself, rubbing the sore area where she had struck him, 'I royally fucked that up, didn't I? I just hope Hitomi doesn't hear about this.' With nothing else to do, he slowly made his way to his next class.

* * *

Minako, in the meantime, was still running down the hallways, more upset than she had ever been in her life. She thought Junji had actually loved her for who she was - but could Kenji have been right? Was he just using her for her body? She shook her head. That couldn't be right - he hadn't tried or even suggested anything more intimate than just kissing so far.

'And you never will at this rate,' she thought furiously. At that point she decided to forget about going after Ryota - she wasn't exactly feeling up to confronting him in this state of mind. As she kept wandering, she eventually found herself in one of the school's many courtyards. While still consumed in her thoughts, she was suddenly distracted by a male voice.

"Excuse me, are you Junji Takeda-san's persocom?"

"Who wants to know?" She replied angrily, but her expression softened when she turned to address the source of the words. It was a brown-haired male persocom with inverted cat-like ears, whose face clearly held no malice or disdain towards her.

"My name is Masahiko," he answered. "I've heard about what's going on between you and your master. I was wondering if you would want to come to meet my master and talk a bit."

"He's not my- wait, why do you want me to come see your master?" The green-haired 'com asked. This was awfully suspicious.

"My apologies," the male 'com said, bowing politely. "My master is Kameko Yamada-san. She's currently the victim of social stigma after it was revealed that she and I are, well... in a relationship." He blushed slightly. "I was thinking I could help cheer her up - well, we could cheer each other up, by sharing our similar experiences."

Minako snorted in annoyance. "The difference is that you're still together, while I've had it with Junji. He betrayed me."

"I'm sorry," Masahiko said, looking downcast. "Perhaps you'd still like to come talk to us?"

"Sure, I guess," the female persocom replied. "It's not like I currently have anything better to do."

She followed Masahiko's lead, as they found Kameko sulking by herself on a stone bench near the corner of the courtyard.

"Kameko-chan, I've brought someone to see you," he said, causing her to look up, first confused by the presence of this strange persocom, but then dawning recognition appeared on her features.

"You - I know you," she said softly. "You were in that video Ryota took, kissing that boy. You were wearing a funny hat then, though."

"Uh, yeah," Minako said, not quite sure what to make of this girl. "My name's Minako. I take it you're Kameko-san?"

"Yes, pleased to meet you Minako-chan," Kameko said, standing up and offering her hand to shake, which Minako accepted.

"I thought that since we were in similar situations, we might be able to find some common ground," Masahiko explained.

Kameko looked away shyly. "To tell you the truth, Minako-chan, I was a little bit happy when that video of you started floating around... it took some of the pressure off of Masahiko and me. I know that's a selfish thing to think, sorry."

Minako laughed a bit, finally starting to calm down from her earlier incensed mood. "That's okay. That kind of reaction is only to be expected, so I won't hold it against you. As for finding common ground, I'm afraid we might be out of luck. See, Junji-san and I, well, we sort of just broke up."

"What? Why?" Kameko asked, looking concerned.

"Well, we were arguing after we found out everyone knew about us. I wanted to go confront Ryota-"

"That wouldn't have worked," Masahiko interrupted.

"It's true," Kameko elaborated. "I told him that I really didn't appreciate what he had done and I wished he would stop making fun of us, but he just laughed in my face and said several very rude things to me," she said, looking sad again.

As if anticipating Minako's response, Masahiko continued: "I doubt he would respond much better to a more aggressive approach, either."

"Maybe you're right," Minako said, sighing.

"Did you break up just because of that?" Kameko asked.

"No, we got into an argument and he said that..." Minako winced, still hurt by the feeling of betrayal fresh in her mind. "He said that he wasn't convinced I was any more than a machine."

"That's it?" Masahiko asked, surprised.

"What do you mean, _that's it_?" Minako replied, staring angrily at him. "How would you feel if Kameko-san said that to you?"

"It would hardly be the worst thing she could say," he answered. "It's not like your Junji said you were definitely just a machine or there was no way you had feelings. He just said he wasn't absolutely sure."

"That's true," Kameko added. "That seems like an awfully small thing to break up a relationship over. He was probably just stressed and blurted it out without thinking. I admit I don't know him, but I think you should give him another chance."

"This might be for the best anyway. After all, people won't be able to make fun of him for dating me anymore." Minako said flippantly, her arms crossed in defiance.

"That's not true," Kameko objected. "Once something like this gets out, you're marked for life. They'll never allow him to live it down."

"If Junji-san is a brave enough person to enter into a relationship with you despite the inevitable social humiliation it must bring, then he must really care about you," Masahiko said. "Sure, he might have made a mistake this time, but neither humans nor persocoms are perfect. We all make mistakes sometimes."

"You don't know how rare and wonderful it is to find someone who really cares about you for who you are, and likes you in spite of your flaws. Excuse me if I'm being presumptuous, but you've probably made some mistakes in your relationship with Junji-san, and he's forgiven them. I just don't think it's worth it to throw away everything you have with him over a little thing like this," said Kameko.

Minako sat down next to her on the bench, looking wistful. She had given Junji a lot of trouble, and he had been remarkably patient with her in most instances. She guessed maybe she did owe it to him.

"You might be right," she said after a few seconds. "But I'm still going to demand an apology from him," she added, the edge back in her voice.

Kameko laughed. "You certainly have that right."

"I guess this was a good idea after all," Masahiko observed. "We do seem to have made some progress here."

"Yeah, I'm glad to have met you, Minako-chan," Kameko said. "Hopefully we can be friends."

"That sounds nice," Minako said, smiling. After they had exchanged phone numbers and e-mail addresses, Minako got up and left, still nervous about having to confront Junji again at the end of the day.

* * *

After Junji had gotten through his next class, and weathered the constant stares, mocking laughter, and cruel jokes at his expense from his classmates, he was feeling like he really needed a rest. As he slumped against the wall in an out - of - the - way corridor, he heard footsteps approaching. Looking up, he saw it was his friend Tadao.

"What, are you here to make fun of me too?" He asked.

"No, man, actually I'm sorry about what happened," the other boy said, sitting down on the floor next to Junji.

"Really?" Junji asked.

"Yeah. I mean personally I don't think it's such a big deal. Persocoms can be pretty cute. Besides, they come with a big advantage over real girls."

"Oh yeah? What's that?" Junji thought to himself how if Minako were here, she would already be tearing into Tadao for implying she was less real than a human girl, but he didn't want to isolate one of the few people who was showing him any sympathy.

"If she starts nagging you, you can just turn her off!" He said, laughing.

'Oh boy,' Junji thought. 'Now I'm _really_ glad Minako isn't here.'.

"Actually, she kind of disabled her activation switch." Junji explained.

"What?" Tadao asked, confused.

"She took a screwdriver and just removed the damn thing. Said she didn't like the idea of other people being able to turn her on and off at will."

"Wow. She sounds almost human," Tadao replied.

"She is. I mean, well, she's not _human_ - human, bud her mind and her behavior... she's really just like a human girl. She says that all persocoms are people with real emotions and deserve to be treated equally to human beings."

"That's crazy!" Tadao said, laughing. "You don't really believe that, do you Junji-san?"

"Well..." he said, clearly hesitant about how to reply. "She's certainly given me a lot to think about regarding that point."

"Are you in love with her?"

"What?" Junji replied, his voice almost breaking as he started to blush furiously. "What makes you think that?"

"Well you were kissing her..." Tadao stated the obvious.

"Yes, but I don't know if-"

"How good is she in bed?" He asked, grinning deviously. He was obviously enjoying taunting Junji at this point, and it was working. Junji's face became even redder, and he started stammering:

"What - w-we haven't ex-exactly gotten to that p-point in our relationship y-yet..."

Tadao laughed and slapped Junji on the back. "Calm down! I'm just kidding with you."

Junji gave him an irritated glare, but then started to look depressed. "Actually, we're not exactly on very good terms right now. I think she just broke up with me."

Tadao began laughing again. "I've heard of people dating persocoms, but you have to be the first person I've ever heard of who was dumped by a persocom!"

"Tadao-san, this is serious!" Junji admonished him. He calmed down after a bit.

"So how did it happen?"

Junji explained the earlier events to him, and he listened with interest.

"It seems like she's really obsessed with this whole persocom equality thing," he observed.

"Yeah, you can say that again."

"Having a 'com like that must be a pain to deal with."

"I'll admit that's true sometimes," Junji conceded. "But she's really a very sweet girl deep down. All she really wants is a bit of respect. I think that... I'm glad she's a part of my life, even though she's caused me all of this trouble."

"Wow, you've got it bad," Tadao said. Junji blushed again.

"I - I guess I do..."

"You should go apologize to her."

"I thought you said you didn't believe persocoms were people? So why would you suggest that?"

"Hey, I'm not the one to ask about all of these deep philosophical questions. But it's clear to me that you really care about her, and it seems that you upset her. So if you both want to be happy again, apologizing is probably the right thing to do," Tadao explained.

"I see. You know, you're right," Junji said, standing up and finally feeling confidence again. "Thanks, that really helped."

"No problem," the other boy replied. "Just do me a favor, will you?"

"What's that?"

"Don't tell anyone else about this conversation. My social life is still intact, after all."

Junji rolled his eyes, but agreed, as the other boy jogged off down the hallway.

'I just hope Minako actually shows up for the carpool back to the dorm,' Junji thought.


	13. Chapter 13

Junji was relieved to see Minako approaching the car, as he and Hitomi had been waiting a minute or two already. He hadn't told his fellow student about the argument they had had, and was hoping she wouldn't ask too many questions. He really didn't feel like dealing with her now.

"Minako-" Junji said as the persocom climbed into the car, but she just glared at him.

"Save it," she said angrily, although Junji noted she seemed calmer than she had been earlier.

"What's wrong?" Hitomi asked, concern showing on her features. "Did you two get into a fight?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Junji and Minako both said, almost simultaneously. They both then cracked a hint of a smile at their inadvertent synchronization, but their expressions quickly turned sour again.

"Okay, I'll respect your privacy," Hitomi said. "But I really hope you can make up."

None of them exchanged any more words on the drive back to the dorm building. Even after Junji and Minako went back to their dorm room, an awkward silence remained between them for several minutes. Junji was about to speak up when Minako beat him to it.

"I'm going out," she said, opening the door.

"Where?" Junji asked.

"**Out**," she replied harshly, as she nearly slammed the door behind her. Junji buried his face in his hands. There had to be something he could do to make it up to her, like Hitomi had said.

* * *

As Minako walked down the street to the shopping complex on the corner, she started feeling regret. Masahiko and Kameko had helped convince her that she had been too harsh on Junji, but as soon as she saw him standing by the car all she could think of were his insensitive and hurtful comments, even if he had made them without really thinking first. As long as he apologized though, she would forgive him. She just hoped that he would forgive her, too. Her thoughts were then interrupted by a sarcastic male voice.

"Hey look, it's Takeda-san's little love doll," said a boy she recognized from school, walking together with two of his friends, one boy and one girl. "What's it doing out here by itself? Did he send it to buy some porno magazines? Teach it some new tricks?" The girl laughed. Minako glared at them and made a rude gesture, but the three just laughed even more.

"Man, the shit he programs her with," one of the boys said. "What a loser!" Minako's angry expression temporarily softened, and a devious smile started creeping onto her face.

"Excuse me," she said, addressing the lead boy. "Kunio-san, was it? I don't exactly think you're in a position to mock Junji-san, considering you were in line to purchase sexual favors from Fumio-san's 'com."

The boy's face immediately turned bright red. "How-how did you know-"

"You mean it's true?" The girl next to him asked. He swore under his breath, realizing that he had blown his chance to deny it.

"Yeah... well... maybe it is, but that was just sex for pleasure," he said, trying to save face. "I was never in love with her, like your degenerate master is!"

"It's still pretty sick," the other boy said. "What, you couldn't get a real girl?"

"Sh-shut up!" Kunio replied, now looking more flustered than ever. Minako chuckled to herself as she entered the grocery store, leaving the three behind to argue amongst themselves.

* * *

The green-haired persocom headed straight to a specific aisle in the store, and quickly found what she was looking for. Pleased that it wasn't sold out, she reached in and grabbed it, then headed to the cash register to ring it up. Just as the cashier gave her a bag to put it in, she suddenly noticed Junji entering the store.

'_What's he doing here?_' She wondered, as she hid behind a cereal display, observing him discreetly.

Instead of heading towards the food aisles, Junji walked towards the florist stall and began browsing its contents. Eventually he picked out a colorful bouquet of red roses, as well as some purple flowers that he didn't know the names of. They were pretty, at least, and he hoped this would help Minako forgive him. As he paid the florist and turned around, he nearly jumped out of his skin as he came face-to-face with the very person he had bought the bouquet for.

"Flowers? How cliche." Minako said teasingly. Junji, too flustered to pick up the sarcastic tone in her voice, looked down towards the floor.

"Sorry, it was the only thing I could think of-"

"It's okay Junji-san, they're beautiful," she said, reassuring him. He blushed slightly as she reached for the bag she was carrying around her shoulder. "I got you something too."

Looking inside the plastic bag, Junji saw a carton of ice cream - the same flavor Minako had bought for him the day before they visited Dr. Mihara.

"Wow, thanks," he said. "So that's what you left to go do." Now it was Minako's turn to blush.

"I'm sorry for overreacting earlier, Junji-san," she said. "I should have realized the kind of stress you were under."

"No, it was my fault. I should never have said those things. I know how upsetting they must have been to you."

And then, for just a moment not caring what anyone else thought of them, the reunited couple embraced and shared a long, deep kiss right in the middle of the store. When they finally finished, they noticed at least a dozen people staring at them, but they didn't care.

"We'd better get back home and put these in some water," said Minako, referring to the flowers.

"And put this in the freezer before it melts," Junji replied, gesturing at the ice cream.

* * *

As they returned home yet again, Minako's face suddenly assumed a worried expression.

"What's wrong?" Junji asked.

"Trouble," She said. "Meteorologists have been tracking a small tropical storm in the pacific for the last few days, but it's just been upgraded to typhoon status. Forecasts predict it's going to hit Kyoto in 3 days."

"A typhoon? Dammit, there goes our date this Thursday!" Junji said, annoyed.

"This is more serious than that, Junji-san!" Minako exclaimed. "This is a big storm. Its wind speed has been constantly increasing, and it might even reach 140 knots! The entire city could be in danger!"

"Minako," Junji said, putting his hands on her shoulders to reassure her, "I've been through typhoons before. That includes big ones. They're not that uncommon. I'm sure the authorities and the citizens are doing everything they can to prepare. This building is pretty sturdy, and reinforced to withstand high winds. I'm sure we'll be fine."

Minako looked skeptical, but slightly relieved. "I guess you're right, Junji-san. But this will be the first time I'll have experienced this kind of thing."

"We'll weather it together," he said, smiling. She gave him a quick kiss and then left again, saying she needed to buy some emergency supplies.

* * *

Several hours later, Minako finally returned from the store, having had to take Junji's car to carry all of the extra food, bottled water, and other provisions she had purchased. She carried a few bags up, intending to drop them off and then get Junji to help her carry the rest into their room. However, she was intercepted by another girl who lived in the same dorm building. Minako identified her as Miho Katsura, a classmate of Junji's in his foreign language course. A flash of recognition played across the girl's eyes, and a cruel smirk emerged on her lips. Minako inwardly groaned, knowing what was coming next.

"Man, that Takeda loser is shameless - I hear he made out with you right in the middle of the grocery store! As if he didn't even care who saw him!"

"Piss off!" Minako said, attempting to walk past the human girl, but she reached out and shoved the persocom roughly, causing her to collapse on the floor, the bags of heavy bottled water falling on top of her.

"You can't talk to me like that, you worthless pile of scrap!" The girl yelled angrily. Minako tried to pull herself back up, but Miho kicked her down again. "Let's see if that loser still wants to kiss this piece of junk when its face is split open!" She lifted one of her spike-heeled boots and attempted to slam it down right on Minako's face, but the persocom deftly dodged out of the way and grabbed Miho's leg with both arms, pulling her forwards and causing her to stumble and fall next to her. Minako pulled herself up, managing to gather some of the bags, as the human girl tried to stand up as well. However, she found it difficult, as she had apparently twisted her ankle.

"You mechanical bitch!" She screamed hysterically. "I'll sue that perverted owner of yours! Have you recycled, you malfunctioning piece of garbage!"

"That's going to be a bit difficult without any witnesses," Minako replied, bitterness evident in her voice. "According to what I saw, you just tripped and hurt yourself."

The fallen girl screamed in hate and indignation, while Minako quickly made her way to the dorm room and told Junji what had happened.

* * *

"I have the whole thing recorded on my hard drive," Minako said. "Can't we get her kicked out of the dorm for this?"

Junji sighed. "While she could be charged for attempted destruction of property," Minako frowned at this term, even though she knew Junji was simply referring to the laws as they were written, "You hurt her, and any persocom that deliberately injures a human being is required to have its memory wiped and be rebooted from scratch."

"But I was just defending myself!" The elf-eared 'com objected.

"I know, but that's not how the courts would see it. The best thing we can do is keep to your story that she tripped and fell. That way, she doesn't have any evidence against you."

"Junji-san... why couldn't I have been born human?" Minako asked, resting her head on his shoulder as she cried. Of course they weren't real tears - merely internal cleaning and lubrication fluid being released through her artificial tear ducts - but the emotion behind them was genuine. "If I were human, none of this would be happening!"

Junji hugged her tightly, and gently wiped the tears from under her eyes. "Minako, I know what it's like. But as much as it may pain you to accept it, you're not human, and you never will be. That doesn't mean you're not a person, though. And I know you're a very strong person - this isn't like you."

"I'm sorry, Junji-san," she said between sobs. "It's just... all of this hate directed at us... it's too much."

"Shh..." he said, trying to comfort her again. "Remember what you said? They can just sit and stew in their own ignorant bigotry."

"Yeah, I did say that, didn't I?" The green-haired girl said, a hint of a smile returning to her face.

"If you want, you can stay here while I bring the rest of the stuff in from the car," Junji told her.

"No, I can handle it. If that bitch shows up again, I don't think she'll try to attack both of us when we're together."

"Fine, let's go," he said, holding her hand as they headed back towards the car.


	14. Chapter 14

**Three days later**

The shelves and small kitchen of the dorm room were lined wall - to - wall with dried food, bottled water, and various other supplies. The windows and balcony doors were shut tightly, and Junji and Minako sat next to each other on the couch, watching the news reports on the storm.

The winds had started to really pick up a few hours ago, and the sky was covered in dark rain clouds. The storm had been steadily intensifying, to the point where the howling of the wind could be heard clearly even behind the locked doors and windows. The weatherman, standing in front of a computerized satellite image of the typhoon, continued to cover the event.

**"Although Kyoto's geography leaves little chance of storm surge damage, the sheer amount of rain being delivered by this storm does lead to the danger of flash floods in several areas-"**

Suddenly the screen went blank, and all of the lights went out as well, leaving the couple sitting in the dark.

"Dammit, the power's out already," Junji grumbled. "I was hoping it would last for at least a few more hours."

"This isn't good," Minako whispered. "I only have about an hour of charge left in my capacitors."

"Well you can recharge from the sunlight, can't you?" Junji asked.

Minako rolled her eyes, walked over to a nearby window, and pulled the curtain aside.

"Yeah, brilliant idea," she said sarcastically, gesturing towards the dark sky.

"There's still some light coming through," Junji objected.

"Not nearly enough to recharge my power faster than I'm using it," the persocom explained. "Even if I were to just stand still and do nothing."

"Well it's not the end of the world," the college student said. "Even if you do run out of power, I can recharge you and wake you back up once the storm passes."

"I know," she answered with a sigh. "But it's still pretty damn inconvenient. And it's just another thing that serves to remind me that I'm not..." she hesitated a bit, trying to think of the right words. "Not the same as you..."

Junji gently took her into an embrace. "You're the same where it matters," he whispered to her. She smiled and returned the hug.

After a few moments, the green-haired girl pulled free and walked over to the kitchen. "You might as well eat some of that ice cream before it melts," she said, reminding Junji that the refrigerator, like everything else, was without power.

"Good idea," he replied, as he walked over to the opposite side of the room while Minako prepared the ice cream.

"We should probably make use of this thing, too," he said, opening a small box he had recently purchased. It contained a battery-powered radio, allowing them to monitor the news reports even without power.

* * *

A few minutes later, the two were sitting on the couch again, listening intently to the radio, which sat on a table next to a now-empty ice cream bowl. After a few more minutes of this, Junji was starting to get tired. It was getting late. He stood up, taking the radio with him, and set it down on a small side table next to his bed, keeping it on but turning the volume down to a low level.

"I should probably get some rest," he said, yawning, as he climbed under the covers.

"May I join you?" Upon hearing these words, Junji nearly had a nosebleed, as he looked up at the beautiful persocom standing in front of him.

Minako quickly realized what she had said, and started blushing furiously, although it was difficult for Junji to see in the dim light.

"I - I didn't mean it like that!" She said, waving her arms hysterically. "It's just that, since my power is about to run out, I'd like to spend these last few minutes, um... next to you... that is, if you want to..." she said, her blush and embarrassed tone of voice not dissipating in the least.

Junji smiled, Minako's enhanced vision easily picking up the expression in the dark. "Sure. I'd like that." He pulled the covers down on the opposite side of the bed, offering her a spot. She climbed in, and nestled up next to him. He wrapped his arms around her, feeling her soft, warm body adjacent to his, and smiled in contentment.

* * *

**Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz!**

Junji was awoken from his sleep by a loud noise coming from the radio. He slowly opened his eyes and reached to flip the lightswitch next to his bed, but was confused when nothing happened. He then remembered that the power had gone out. The radio continued to buzz, a shrill alarm noise followed by an announcement.

**"Due to threats of flash flooding, evacuation orders have been issued for the following neighborhoods in Higashiyama ward. If you are a resident of any of these areas, please proceed in an orderly manner to the nearest designated storm shelter."**

Junji listened intently as his neighborhood was mentioned, and the address of the shelter was given.

"Dammit, this just keeps getting worse and worse," he muttered to himself, as he gently nudged the inert figure next to him. "Come on Minako, we have to go."

There was no reaction, and her body felt cold to the touch. "Minako?" He said, pulling away the covers and seeing her peaceful - looking face. Suddenly he remembered that she had been running low on power. Glancing over at the digital clock on the radio, he saw that he had slept for almost 2 hours.

"_Shit_," he swore, as he quickly got out of bed and began getting dressed. After he was finished, he lifted Minako off the bed and began to carry her to the door. She was just as heavy as he remembered her to be the day he had first purchased her.

"I'd better not ever tell her she weighs a lot, I'd never hear the end of it," he joked to himself, as he strained to carry the persocom out into the hallway. As soon as they emerged, he came face - to - face with Hitomi, who was also preparing to evacuate.

"Minako-chan!" The black-haired girl cried in concern, rushing over to the incapacitated persocom.

"It's okay," Junji reassured her. "She just ran out of power. She'll be fine once we can find a place to recharge her."

Hitomi sighed in relief. "Do you want me to help you carry her?"

Junji didn't spend much time deliberating on this question, as his sense of manly pride was easily overwhelmed by the more rational part of his brain.

"Yeah, that would be great, thanks," he said, as the two humans carried the 'com down the stairs. It was quite a struggle bringing her to the car through all of the wind and rain, but they somehow managed, and gently laid her down in the back seat. As Junji pulled out of the parking lot, the rain was coming down in sheets so thick that, even with the windshield wipers on full speed, he could barely see where he was going. Luckily, it took only about 10 minutes to reach the shelter, an old three-story community center.

They pulled into a small parking garage, thankfully covered by a concrete roof, and grabbed Minako from the back seat, carrying her up to the building's entrance.

They were stopped by a middle-aged man, wearing a yellow shirt that identified him as part of an emergency evacuation coordinator team.

"I'm sorry, but no persocoms are allowed in the shelter," he said, gesturing at the unconscious Minako.

"What? Why?" Junji asked, understandably outraged.

"We're running on a generator, and we don't have any electricity to spare on frivolities like persocoms," the man explained.

"Frivoli-" Junji began, fire in his eyes, but Hitomi cut him off, trying a more diplomatic approach.

"What if we don't charge her, and just keep her deactivated until we leave?"

The man looked skeptical. "Just an hour ago someone else tried to claim the same thing, but we found her charging her 'com when she thought no one was looking. Sorry, but I'm afraid you'll have to leave it in the car. I'll help you carry it back, if you want. I know how heavy those things can be."

"That won't be necessary," Junji said angrily, as he and Hitomi turned back towards the car, frowning in defeat. After they had safely placed Minako in the back seat again, Junji whispered to her that everything would be okay, despite the fact that he knew she couldn't hear him. They reentered the building, and were instructed to report to a room down the hall to check themselves in.

* * *

There were dozens of people, standing in various lines, carrying bags of belongings, babies in strollers, young children making a lot of noise - the place was chaos. Yet it was a somehow orderly chaos, with everyone being led to an unseen director at the front of the room, who seemed to be interviewing each group and sending them on their way. Junji and Hitomi got in line, and were forced to wait several minutes before they finally reached the front.

"Okay, move it along, we've got a lot more people coming in," a high-pitched female voice said. Junji was surprised to find that the voice belonged to a laptop persocom. She had short black hair, and was wearing a miniature version of the shirt the doorman had been wearing. The expression on her face gave the impression of someone who was severely overworked.

"Name, address, and inventory of items?" She asked Junji.

"Wait," he started, ignoring her question. "I thought persocoms weren't allowed in here."

"I'm an exception," the laptop explained, a hint of boastful arrogance in her voice. "I serve a very important role here - cataloging all of the evacuees and their belongings. Besides, I require far less power than a full - sized 'com."

Junji shrugged, accepting that this made sense, but he was still upset about having to leave Minako behind.

"Well, are you going to answer or not? You're holding up the line!" The annoyed laptop exclaimed.

"Oh, um, right. Sorry." Junji said, as he and Hitomi gave the requested information, and were told to proceed to another room further down the hallway.

They sat down next to each other on a blanket Hitomi had brought with her, watching the dozens of other people scattered about the large room.

"I hope Minako will be okay..." Junji whispered.

"I'm sure she'll be fine," Hitomi said, smiling. "The car is locked, no one can get in, and it's in that garage outside of the storm."

"I hope you're right," he replied. They continued to sit and chat, noticing that new people would periodically enter the room from the door to the hallway.

After about another half hour, the evacuation was apparently complete, as the laptop from before entered the room and made an announcement.

"Okay everybody," she began. "It seems most everyone in the threatened areas has safely arrived here. I'll be back in the check-in room with the other coordinators just in case we get a few late arrivals, but until then, make yourselves comfortable. This is going to be a long night."

"Her voice is pretty loud for such a small body," Hitomi mused, as the laptop left the room again.

"Probably some special audio amplification hardware or something," Junji muttered, trying to rest his head on the blanket. He hadn't gotten enough sleep earlier and was hoping he could catch up. Despite the bright lights and loud chatter of the refugees, he somehow managed to eventually drift off.

* * *

Junji was awoken yet again, this time by a gentle nudge on his shoulder from Hitomi.

"Urrrghh... what time is it?" He asked her, still feeling groggy. Hitomi checked her watch.

"Three AM," she said. Junji scowled, but Hitomi quickly explained that something seemed to be going on.

Looking up, they saw the laptop standing on a small podium near the front of the room.

"Sorry to interrupt your sleep," she said, in that amplified voice again, "but there's a bit of a problem. The floodwaters are more extensive than originally predicted, and this building looks to be right in their path. The water outside is already rising to dangerous levels."

"I thought this place was supposed to be safe!" One man objected.

"Hey, calm down!" The laptop replied. "There's no reason to panic. We should all be safe on the second and third floors. So I'd like everyone to follow me up the stairs, in a calm and orderly fashion." She hopped off the podium and walked towards the door to the hallway. There was a lot of mumbling and muttered swearing among the refugee group, but they followed the diminutive persocom without protest.

No less than 10 minutes after they had settled in on the second floor, Junji and Hitomi saw the laptop's prediction proven correct, as a large wall of water rushed through the street below them, illuminated by the building's outdoor lights.

"Wow, that looks dangerous... I'm glad we're all up here," Hitomi said. Junji nodded in silent agreement.

Suddenly, he noticed something. The water was beginning to flood through the parking garage! A few small cars were even being carried out into the street by the deluge, including one he recognized as his own.

Hitomi gasped, and turned around to address her friend, but she saw that he was already sprinting towards the stairs. The same man who had been minding the door earlier attempted to stop him.

"Sir, it's not safe down there. We have to insist that you stay up here until the water has-"

"Get out of my way!" Junji screamed, tearing himself loose from the grasp of the man, as he rushed downstairs to the flooded first floor.

"Minako, I'm coming!"


	15. Chapter 15

"Minako!" Junji called out desperately, as he opened the front door of the shelter, emerging into the heavy wind and rain. He looked back and saw that one of the evacuation officials from before was chasing after him, crossing the ankle-deep water on the first floor of the building.

Junji looked down the street and spied his car - it had collided with a telephone pole on the far side of the street, and the water flowing around it was rising. He hesitated for a moment, but then made a fateful (and perhaps, he thought, fatal) decision as he jumped into the rushing water, just as the official reached the door behind him.

"Are you crazy? What in the hell do you think you're doing?" The man screamed, his words barely audible above the roar of the typhoon. He ran back inside to consult his coworkers, as he was not nearly crazy enough to attempt what Junji had just done.

The college student felt his entire body spasm as the freezing water shocked his nerves, but he somehow managed to force himself past it through sheer will, and manage to guide himself through the raging torrent downstream to where his car was precariously lodged against the telephone pole. As he grabbed hold of the vehicle and attempted to climb out of the water, a sharp pain ripped through his lower leg. A piece of debris caught in the flood had struck him, tearing his pant leg and inflicting a bleeding wound, nearly knocking him away from the car.

Using what seemed to be the last remaining vestiges of his strength, he was able to pull himself out of the water, crouching on the top of the vehicle. He looked down through the sunroof, and could barely make out the unconscious form of Minako in the dim light, which spurred him further onward. He banged on the glass, attempting to force his way in, but quickly realized he wasn't making any progress. Trying another tactic, he carefully repositioned himself, reaching out and grabbing a passing chunk of concrete being carried by the water. It was heavy, but he lifted it up and used it to smash the sunroof, sending chunks of broken glass raining down into the car.

Wasting no time, he dropped through the opening, his body sustaining more injuries from the jagged edges of the smashed glass, but he ignored the pain. Picking up Minako, he attempted to climb back out, but was unable to get a handhold on the broken sunroof, and they both fell back into the car seat, Junji feeling even more gashes in his flesh from the pieces of broken glass he had landed on. Almost immediately afterwards, the car itself lurched dangerously, their shifting weights having nearly knocked it back into the floodwaters. Opening the side doors was obviously impossible, as they were almost completely submerged, and even if he could get to the driver's seat, he just realized he had left his keys in a bag with Hitomi. Meanwhile, the rainwater was pouring in through the broken sunroof.

'_Dammit_...' Junji thought to himself, his hands bleeding as he held the persocom's head gently to his chest. 'Am I really going to die like this?'

As he hugged Minako tightly, he was taken by surprise as her eyes suddenly opened and focused on him.

"Minako, what - I thought you were out of power!" He exclaimed, retracting his bloodstained hands from her neck.

"Junji, what's going on? What happened to you?" She asked with concern, noticing the injuries covering his body.

"There's no time, we have to-" He began to reply, but at that moment the car lurched again and was sent careening back into the water, and came to rest a few seconds later on the opposite side of the road with a loud crash. Luckily, its new position left one of the back doors mostly open to the air, so Minako wasted no time in opening it and helping the injured Junji out into the shallow water covering the sidewalk.

"Come on, we've got to get you back to the shelter," she said, helping him stand up as they slowly made their way down the side of the road, against the wind and rain.

"The shelter? How do you know about-"

"Shh", she admonished him, "save your strength."

* * *

Several minutes later, they finally made it, the officials taking Junji upstairs for medical treatment.

He woke up later on a hospital - like bed, his body aching all over, but feeling better than it had when he had sustained his injuries. He felt bandages across his body, and, opening his eyes, he saw a familiar face sitting in a chair next to him.

"Minako?" He asked, noticing her eyes were closed. "Minako!" He exclaimed again when she didn't respond.

"Don't bother, she ran out of power hours ago," a high female voice said from another corner of the room. It was the laptop from earlier. "She used most of her remaining power to save you."

"What... how..." Junji was still confused.

"She explained it to me," the laptop elaborated. "Apparently back at your place, she deliberately shut herself down before she completely ran out of power, and then set a timer to wake her up for a few seconds every hour afterwards, so she would have at least some idea of what was going on."

"Heh, that sounds like Minako alright," Junji chuckled, once again admiring the 'com's resourcefulness. '_That also explains how she knew about the shelter_,' he thought. '_She must have used her GPS to determine her position sometime after we got there_.'

"When she activated and saw you in the car, after pulling that frankly idiotic stunt earlier," the laptop continued, her voice hiding none of the disdain she had for Junji's action, "She knew something was wrong, so she brought you back here. After such a heroic act, I managed to convince the others to make another exception to the 'no persocoms' rule, on the condition that she still wouldn't be allowed to use our generator to recharge. She spent her last few minutes of awareness watching over you as you slept here."

"Minako..." Junji whispered, turning his neck again to look at her sleeping form.

"Oh, I almost forgot," the laptop added, jumping off the table she had been sitting on and approaching the bandaged student. "She told me to tell you that if you ever do something so stupid and dangerous again, she'll kill you personally."

Junji chuckled again, but stopped when the laughter triggered pain from one of his chest wounds. "It was pretty dumb, wasn't it," he muttered. "If I hadn't done anything, chances are she would have been able to rescue herself just fine."

"Still, it took guts to do what you did," the laptop said. "You must really care about her."

Junji blushed, looking away from the diminutive persocom. She laughed. "In my experience most humans don't really feel comfortable admitting to feelings like that, especially for a persocom. But if someone had done something like that for me, personally I would be flattered. Despite her initial reaction, I'm sure that on some level, Minako-chan feels flattered as well."

"You know, I never got your name," Junji told her, changing the subject.

"Kyoko," she replied, smiling.

"Well, Kyoko-chan, I'd like to thank you and your friends for helping to treat me. Maybe s- AAAH!" He shouted in pain, feeling the wound on his leg flare up as he tried to stand up. He collapsed back down on the bed as Kyoko rushed over to him.

"Don't try to walk yet, you still need time for the painkillers to take full effect," she said, moving to change the bandage on his leg.

"You could have told me that earlier," Junji grumbled.

"I figured it would be common sense," she replied, her voice tinged with sarcasm. "But then again, maybe it was my fault for overestimating the guy who dove into a flood during a typhoon."

Junji laughed. "You've got me there, Kyoko-chan. What time is it, anyway?"

"Eight Fourteen AM and 32.6 seconds," she replied instantly. "The storm is over, in case you were wondering."

"Great. How long until I can walk again?"

"Probably no more than 24 hours. Most of your injuries are minor, except for the one on your leg."

"That's good to hear," he said. "You know, even if you still have to use the generator here, the sun has probably risen already, so you could take Minako outside to start recharging her."

"I thoght of that," the laptop responded, "but she looked so intent on staying by your side that I figured I'd ask you first, when you came to."

"Well I think she'd probably want to be reactivated as soon as possible," Junji said.

"Gotcha. I'll get one of the guys on it in a minute. Although it's interesting..."

"What?"

"The way you speak about her, and the way she spoke about you. It's not the typical master-servant dynamic that usually exists between humans and 'coms."

"You're pretty observant," Junji said. "Yeah, we have an... interesting... relationship."

Kyoko smiled again. "You two are lucky. I wish my master would see me as a more than just a servant." She sighed. "At least I'm treated fairly well."

Before Junji could respond, one of the shelter workers entered the room.

"Oh, he's up," the man said, looking at Junji.

"Yeah, he said it's okay to take Minako-chan outside and recharge her."

"Sure," he said, walking over to the chair in which the green-haired girl was sitting and carefully picking her up.

"Oh, by the way," he worker said as he left the room, "I went over to inspect what remains of your car earlier. Sorry to say, but it's totaled."

Junji swore. Then again, that was only to be expected, with all the abuse it had taken last night.

* * *

**3:45 PM the following day**

After more rest and medical care, Junji was finally able to walk, and had relied on a friend to drive him, Minako, and Hitomi back to the dorm. In a cruelly ironic twist of fate, the building had remained intact, aside from a bit of water damage on the basement and first floor. It turned out that if they had not heeded the evacuation order, none of this would have ever happened.

Junji was resting on the couch, still recuperating. He had called the school earlier and come to an agreement to watch his lectures and do his work online for a few days. Luckily the power to the dorm building had returned earlier in the day.

He looked over at his persocom girlfriend, who was currently going through the refrigerator, determining what had to be thrown out and what was still good.

"Minako?" He called to her.

"Hmm?" She asked, turning her head to look at him.

"I just want to say I'm sorry for doing such a reckless thing, I know it was-"

"You don't need to say any more," she cut him off, smiling. "I am mad at you for putting yourself in danger like that, but only because I care about you." She closed the refrigerator door and starting walking over to him.

"Honestly I'm a bit conflicted about this whole thing. It's probably not an appropriate thought to have-"

Junji got a strange grin on his face, but Minako scowled. "Get your mind out of the gutter. I was just about to say that part of me feels flattered that you risked your life to protect me."

Junji recalled Kyoko's words. Like he had said, she was certainly perceptive.

"But that doesn't mean I want you to ever do anything like that again, got it?" Minako said sternly, snapping him back to reality.

"Got it," he said, smiling, as the two laughed and shared a kiss.

A while later, the phone rang, and Minako picked it up.

"Hello?"

"My name is Minako."

"No, you don't have the wrong number, Junji-san is here. I'm a persocom."

"Okay, I'll put him on."

She handed the phone to him, whispering "it's your mother."

"Mom? What's going on?" Junji asked. The doting voice of his mother came out of the line.

"Junji-kun, are you okay? We heard the area you're staying in was badly hit by the storm. We tried to contact you earlier but the line was dead, we were worried!"

"I'm fine mom," he said, not mentioning his injuries so as not to worry her. "We just lost power for a while. What about you and the family, are you guys okay?"

"We're fine, our city wasn't hit very hard at all. We didn't even lose power."

"Lucky you. My car was totally wrecked."

"Well don't worry Junji-kun, your father and I will buy you a new one."

"Mom, that's really not necessary-"

"Oh don't be silly Junji-kun, it's the least we can do!"

Junji sighed. He realized it was an odd thing to complain about, but his parents were often too eager to spend their money on him.

"But mom, it was only a few months ago that you sent me that check for the persocom. It's really okay, I have friends I can carpool with until I save up enough money for a new car."

"We'll get back to that later," his mother replied. "But speaking of the persocom, I'm glad she seems to be working out for you. She sounds nice and obedient."

"Uh..." Junji was at a loss for words, while Minako, who had picked up the comment with her enhanced hearing, gave a snort of derision.

"So what does she look like?" His mother continued, oblivious to Junji's reaction to her previous comment.

"Well, she's-"

"Oh, don't bother telling me, I'll see for myself soon!"

"Wait, what?" Junji asked, hoping this didn't mean what he thought it might mean.

"Your father and I are coming to visit you next week!"

Junji facepalmed. This was the last thing he needed right now.

"Uh, mom, I really don't think that's a good idea-"

"Don't worry Junji-kun, we promise not to embarrass you in front of your college friends," his mom said, laughing.

"That's not exactly what-"

"We've already made the hotel reservations, we'll just be dropping in for the weekend," she continued. "We're just going to check up on you for a bit."

"I'm an adult mom, I can handle myself. You do know that having overprotective parents is one of the leading causes of Dependent Personality Disorder, don't you?"

"Oh you and your psychology! I promise we won't disturb you that much, we just want to meet you and your friends, and see how you're doing. Oh, and buy you that new car, of course!"

She hung up before Junji could reply.

"Well at least I'll get the car replaced..." Junji muttered to himself. Minako sat down beside him.

"I take it your parents aren't much for persocom rights," she observed.

"Honestly I'd be surprised if they had even heard of the concept," he answered.

"So I guess that means they'll be expecting me to behave like some obsequious little servant, right? Well I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint them."

"Yeah, I expected you would say that. Still, it's going to be pretty difficult to explain..."

Minako gave Junji a playful hug. "Don't worry, I won't act too headstrong around them. We should just make it clear that I'm to be treated as an equal person."

"They'll probably think that's kind of weird, but I doubt they'll have any serious problems with it. I'm more worried about our relationship," he replied.

"I think we can keep that a secret, at least until we see how they react to me and the idea of persocom equality," Minako said.

"I'm glad to hear that, I thought you would think I was ashamed of it or something."

"The thought had occured to me, but forcing you to acknowledge it in front of your parents right away wouldn't be very fair to you. I just hope they like me."

"What's not to like?" Junji said, laughing, as he gently pulled Minako in for another kiss.


	16. Chapter 16

**One Week Later**

Junji was pacing nervously back and forth across the floor of his dorm room. Although he had told Minako that his parents would likely accept her, recently he had been having second thoughts. His parents had never been interested in persocoms that much - while they were usually eager to buy things for him, it had taken an unusual amount of time to convince them that he needed his own 'com. It wasn't that they were distrustful of technology or anything, they had just never really seen the appeal or necessity of humanoid computers. At first Junji had thought this would be to his advantage - without experience around persocoms they would likely have fewer preconceived notions about them, and be more willing to accept Minako's talk of equality. Then again, they might react in the opposite manner - there was really no way to tell.

He stopped as he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Junji, stop worrying. Your parents are nice people, you've told me that, remember?"

He looked back at the green-haired 'com and smiled. "Yeah, but I like to think I've been a nice person most of my life too, yet I was pretty unfair to you earlier on."

"That's different," she countered. "You're the one who payed for me and expected me to do work for you. If your parents see that you're happy with me the way I am, they shouldn't have much of a reason to object."

"I hope you're right," he mumbled to himself. Minako sighed and went back to sit on the couch.

After a few more minutes of waiting, Junji spied two cars out the window, pulling into the dorm parking lot. One was the familiar white minivan he instantly recognized as the family car. The other was a brand-new, shiny blue sports car.

"Wow, that looks expensive," he muttered. "I hope they didn't spend too much on it."

The cars parked next to each other, and his mom climbed out of the sports car, soon followed by his dad leaving the minivan. Minako had come to the window to look, and Junji thought he saw a bit of nervousness on her face, in contrast to her calm attitude from before. As the two of them headed out into the hallway to greet their visitors, they found out that someone else had already beaten them to it.

"Wow, Hitomi-chan, you sure have grown since I last saw you!" Junji's mother began, speaking to the black-haired girl near the bottom of the stairs.

"I'll say. I remember when you and Junji-kun were barely as high as my knee!" Mr. Takeda added.

Hitomi smiled politely. "It's nice to see you too, Mr. and Mrs. Takeda," she said, bowing slightly. "Junji-kun and Minako-chan should be coming down any minute now."

"Minako-chan?" Junji's father asked in confusion.

"It's the name of his persocom, dear," his wife explained. She then put her finger to her chin in thought. "For some reason that name rings a bell for me... I think I used to know a Minako before..."

It was right at that point that Junji and Minako finally descended the stairs and came face - to - face with the parents. Mr. Takeda was more than a bit overweight and had short, greying hair. Mrs. Takeda had dark black hair kept at shoulder length, and looked very good for her age. Minako noted to herself that they looked nice enough.

"Junji-kun, I missed you!" His mother yelled, immediately embracing him in a huge bear hug. Hitomi giggled.

"Mom, I thought you said you weren't going to embarrass me in front of my friends!" The college student complained.

His mother laughed as she released him. "Oh, come on, Hitomi-chan doesn't count, you two have known each other since you first started school."

Before Junji could reply, his father spoke up.

"So this must be Minako-chan," he said, gesturing at the persocom.

"Pleased to meet you, Takeda-san," she said, bowing politely. She was, of course, a little miffed that he didn't address her directly, but she decided to ignore it for the sake of making a good first impression.

"It's pretty incredible," the man continued, oblivious. "If it wasn't for those ears I'd think it was a real girl."

This, however, was going too far. Junji and Hitomi both averted their eyes, anticipating what was coming next. To their surprise, though, Minako's reaction was not nearly as vociferous as they had expected.

"I would appreciate it if you would not refer to me as 'it', Takeda-san," she said, doing her best to remain polite. "It's rather insulting."

Mr. Takeda blinked a few times, a blank look on his face, but then he chuckled. "I wasn't aware persocoms could get offended!" He said, acting as if the whole thing was a joke.

"Well now you are," Minako replied, unperturbed. "Please try to show a little more respect in the future."

Junji's father continued laughing, but nodded his head, and Minako seemed to accept that as a yes. Junji and Hitomi both let out the breath they had been holding, seeing that a potentially volatile situation had been resolved.

As Hitomi returned to her room, the other four went up to Junji's dorm. His mother gasped upon seeing the interior.

"What? What's wrong?" Junji asked, concerned.

"It's so... clean!" She exclaimed, as if this was the most amazing sight she had ever seen. "Back at home your room was always a complete mess! You really didn't need to go to all the trouble of making it spotless just for our visit!"

Junji laughed. "Actually this is how it normally looks. You can thank Minako for that." What he didn't say, however, was that only about half of the cleaning was actually done by the persocom, the other half was his own work (which Minako would goad him into doing).

"Wow," Mr. Takeda said, looking over at Minako with an impressed expression. "Maybe we should get a persocom after all, if it can do housework half as well as Minako-chan here, it'd be worth it for that alone!"

Minako scowled again at the man's use of 'it' to describe persocoms, but chose not to start another argument so soon.

In the mean time, Junji had walked over to the kitchen area to retrieve a few drinks. As he brought them to his parents, his mother noticed that he was limping slightly.

"Junji-kun, are you okay?"

"What? Oh, yeah," he said, putting the drinks on the table and gesturing towards his wounded leg. "I, uh... fell down the stairs about a week ago, but I'm fine now, it's gotten much better."

Junji felt kind of bad about telling yet another lie to his parents, but what else was he going to say? That he had jumped into a flooded street during a typhoon to try to rescue his persocom? They'd have him committed! (Being a student of psychology, he would know).

"Can I see it, just to make sure?" His mother asked. He figured he might as well show her, as hiding it would seem suspicious. He sat down on the couch and pulled up his pant leg, revealing the bandage. His mom looked at it carefully for a few seconds, and then smiled.

"I'm glad it wasn't anything serious," she said. He chuckled nervously.

"So where will you two be staying?" Minako changed the subject. "There's obviously not enough room in here."

"Oh, we've rented out a hotel room down the road," Mrs. Takeda replied. "It's only about a five minute drive from here."

"Although," began her husband, "I'm starting to have second thoughts. I don't know if I can trust Junji to live alone with a pretty girl..."

"D-dad!" Junji stuttered, blushing bright red. His parents turned to face him, both of them missing the fact that Minako was blushing just as intensely.

"Relax, son, it was just a joke!" Mr. Takeda laughed, affectionately slapping his son on the back. "I know she's not a real girl!"

The green-haired 'com's expression immediately changed from bashful to irritated.

"Excuse me, Takeda-san" she spoke up, her voice sterner than it had been before. "But just because I'm not human doesn't mean that I'm not a person, or that I don't have feelings."

Mr. Takeda stared at her again for a few seconds, seemingly bemused, but then turned back towards Junji and smiled deviously. "So does that mean you _do_ sleep with her?"

"Dad!" Junji exclaimed, now more annoyed than embarrassed. His father just laughed some more, until Minako grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around to face her.

"Hey, this isn't a joke!" She said angrily. "Junji treats me as his equal, and I would appreciate it if you would do the same."

The man kept laughing for a few seconds, but his laughter soon abated under the gaze from the deadly serious Minako. He turned around once more.

"Junji, she's serious?" He asked, the humor gone from his voice.

"Y-yes, dad," he replied, clearing his throat as he gathered up his courage. "Minako-san isn't just a machine. She's just as smart as any human and she has real feelings, too."

Mrs. Takeda looked skeptically at the green-haired girl, who shot her back a mild glare as she crossed her arms in front of her.

"You really believe that, Junji-kun?" His mother asked him.

"Well I didn't at first, but she convinced me," he said, walking over to stand by the persocom's side. "If you treat her with respect and get to know her, I'm sure you'll be convinced too."

The two elders stared at Junji and Minako for what seemed like an eternity, the tension building to the point where it was nearly tangible. Then, finally, Mr. Takeda spoke.

"I'm really not sure what to think about all this..." he began, "but if you insist, Junji, I guess we can treat her like a human."

"Don't do it for me," Junji replied, gesturing towards Minako. "Do it for her." Minako nodded in agreement.

"Okay... I guess..." Mrs. Takeda said reluctantly. There was another awkward silence.

"Hey, who wants to go down and check out the new car?" Junji's father broke the tension.

"Sounds good to me," said Minako, smiling.

"I hope you didn't spend too much money on it..." Junji added.

"Oh Junji-kun, you need to stop worrying about our finances already," his mother said, laughing softly, as they all headed back downstairs.

* * *

Junji had to admit that it was a nice car. It was also a purely electric model - those had been coming more and more into fashion nowadays as the performance gap between gas - powered cars continued to narrow.

"You want to take it for a test drive, son?" Mr. Takeda asked.

"Sure, that sounds fun," Junji said, climbing into the driver's seat. He gestured for Minako to get in, but she shook her head.

"Actually, I've really been meaning to go buy groceries, with all the excitement over your parents coming I haven't gotten around to it yet."

"Well we can stop at the grocery store," Junji's father offered.

"The shop we buy food from is right across the street, dad" Junji pointed out. "I'll tell you what Minako, why don't you and mom go shopping while dad and I take the car out for a spin? It would be a good opportunity for her to get to know you."

"Fine by me," Mr. Takeda said, as he looked over to his wife.

"I - I guess I can..." she responded, still a little perturbed by Junji and Minako's outburst earlier.

"Come on Mrs. Takeda, it will be fun!" Minako said, gently grabbing her arm. The woman smiled, and the two headed across the street as Junji turned the key and drove out of the parking lot.

* * *

"You know ma'am, Junji never did tell me your first name," Minako began, trying to make conversation.

"It's Miki," she said, her expression unreadable. "My husband's name is Joji."

"Thanks for telling me," Minako said, smiling at the older woman. She looked away, refusing to meet the persocom's gaze. Minako frowned. This was going to be difficult. She decided to try to continue anyway.

"So how did you two meet each other?"

"I don't think that's any of your business," Miki replied curtly.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to pry, I was just-" Minako began, but was cut off.

"This must be the store. Quaint little place. What are we looking for?"

"Well we're low on milk, tofu, and bread, and we're completely out of beer-"

Miki cut the 'com off again, to mutter "I hope Junji-kun isn't drinking too much, it must be tempting now that he's living alone."

"He's not alone," Minako said, slightly offended, and then added "and you don't need to worry about that. I don't let him overdo it."

Mrs. Takeda stared at Minako oddly for a while, but then she finally cracked a smile. "You're taking good care of him, huh?"

"Yep," Minako said, smiling in return. "It can be a tough job sometimes."

"Trust me, I know," Miki laughed. They continued to chat as they gathered their groceries and proceeded to the checkout aisle. As they were leaving, Minako spied a familiar couple heading to the store from the opposite direction.

"Hey, Minako-chan!" a male voice shouted.

"Hi Masahiko-kun," she replied, waving with a free arm that wasn't being used to hold grocery bags. "How are you and Kameko-chan doing?"

"It can be tough at times, but we're managing," the shy girl said, holding the persocom's hand. "Who's your friend?"

"This is Junji-san's mother, Miki Takeda-san," Minako introduced her.

"Pleased to meet you, Kameko-chan" Miki said, smiling. "Are you Junji-kun's friend?"

"Actually, I've never met Junji-san," Kameko replied. "But Masahiko and I are friends of Minako-chan."

"Oh," Junji's mother said, trying (and failing) to hide the surprise and slight confusion on her face. "Well I hope you have a nice day."

"Thank you ma'am," Masahiko said, bowing, as he took Kameko's hand again and they entered the store. As soon as they were out of earshot, Miki gave a feigned shivering motion, and made a disgusted - sounding noise.

"What was that for?" Asked Minako.

"That girl was holding hands with that persocom, and I could tell by the way she was looking in his eyes that she was..._ into him_, if you know what I mean."

"Is there something wrong with that?" Minako asked, an edge appearing in her voice.

"It's just creepy," Mrs. Takeda continued. "Authentic interactions and relationships between human beings are one of the essential parts of being human. To throw that away and spend all your time with a robot... that's just appalling. Um... no offense."

"Well sorry but I **do** take offense," Minako said, putting down the bags of groceries on the walkway as they reached the dorm building. "If two people genuinely care about each other, why should it matter if they are both organic or not?"

"It's hardly the same, if you can just go to the store a buy a partner that's programmed to love you. That's turning romance and relationships into a commodity, it's wrong." Miki answered.

"I agree," Minako said, taking Miki by surprise. "Forcing a persocom into a relationship via programming or orders is wrong. We're people too, and we should be able to decide for ourselves what we want to do with our lives. If we happen to fall in love with someone, it should be our own decision. That's the way it was with Masahiko and Kameko-chan, and that's the way it was with-" she quickly caught herself before revealing too much.

Mrs. Takeda didn't reply, and just thoght about what Minako had said. The persocom took this opportunity to grab the grocery bags again and carry them upstairs, and the woman followed.

* * *

As they were putting the groceries away, Miki spoke again.

"I've never heard anyone talk about persocoms as if they were people before. It's such a weird idea, and I'm not sure if I can believe it."

"Junji-kun thought the same thing at first, but I managed to make him change his mind. I'm sure you'll come around too, eventually."

At this, Miki turned to look at the elf-eared girl, her face hardening into an expression of anger.

"Let me make one thing clear, missy," she said, pointing her finger at Minako accusingly. "I'm only entertaining these crazy ideas because I don't want to start a fight with Junji-kun. I'm pretty sure this is just a phase he's going through anyway, maybe he's gotten so deep into his psychology work that he's trying to project it where it doesn't apply. I'll be polite to the best of my ability, but I don't believe for a second that a man-made machine can have a soul. No matter how human you may look and act, you're still just a construct of metal and wires, nothing more!"

"And you're just a bag of bones and meat!" The persocom countered in an equally enraged tone. "How does that make you any better?"

Miki just groaned in frustration and sat down on the couch. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to hurt your... virtual feelings, or whatever."

Minako glowered.

"But I don't think you're the same as a human being, okay? You're not going to change my mind on that, so just accept it."

Minako snorted in anger, then muttered "If you and Joji-san ever do get a persocom, I'll certainly feel sorry for her."

"_If_ we get a persocom," Mrs. Takeda replied, "I'm sure it will be a properly - programmed one, who obeys orders and doesn't talk back."

"I'll show you talking back-" Minako began, but just then the door opened and Junji and his father walked in, both smiling and laughing.

"I take it the drive went well?" Miki asked, eager to change the subject.

"You bet, I've never seen an electric car go so fast!" Junji said excitedly. "I know I gave you grief at first about buying it for me, but just forget that ever happened, okay?"

Mr. Takeda laughed. "See, I told you your mother and I know what's best for you! How was the shopping trip, dear?"

"It was fine," Mrs. Takeda replied. Junji noticed that she and Minako were deliberately avoiding making eye contact with one another.

"You guys must be tired," he said, walking over to sit next to Minako on the couch. "You should probably check in to your hotel room."

"You're right," Joji said, gesturing for his wife to follow him. "It's been quite a day."

"We'll see you tomorrow, Junji-kun!" Miki said as they left and closed the door behind them.

* * *

"Okay, what did you do to piss off my mom?" Junji asked the persocom, having been able to easily glean that something had happened between them.

"It wasn't my fault!" Minako protested, throwing her arms up in a gesture of exasperation. "We seemed to be getting along pretty well at first, but then discussion drifted towards persocom and human equality, and she just wouldn't listen!"

"Hey, neither would I at first. It's only been a few hours, you can't expect to convince her right off the bat. Maybe if you didn't try coming on so strong at first." Junji admonished.

"I didn't! Well, I tried not to... but she said some things that were really offensive," Minako replied, looking downwards and pouting. Junji smiled and gave her a hug.

"Most people aren't aware that certain things are insensitive to say, especially within a culture that treats 'coms as servants. Just, try to put up with them for a few more days, okay?"

"But even if I do, we're going to have to confront them about this again some time," Minako pointed out. "Your mother seemed especially against the idea of romantic relationships between humans and persocoms."

"We'll well just have to ease her into it. Dad too. I believe they'll accept us eventually."

"But what if they don't, Junji?" She shouted, embracing him and starting to cry. "I couldn't ask you to disown your parents for my sake... so you would have to... disown me..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Junji objected, putting his hands on Minako's shoulders and looking her straight in the eyes. "Nobody's disowning anybody! My parents aren't the kind of people who would do that to me. They might not approve, but they'll always love me." He smiled gently. "And I hope you will, too."

Minako wiped the tears off her face. "Thanks, that does make me feel better." She leaned on Junji, pushing him onto his back on the couch as they kissed passionately.

* * *

As Joji and Miki were unpacking their things in the hotel room, Miki suddenly looked up.

"Oh, I remember now!"

"Remember what, honey?" Her husband asked.

"Where I had heard the name Minako before," she explained. "There was that girl in Junji's class back in elementary school, Minako... Fujimoto, I think it was."

"Didn't Junji-kun have a crush on her back in the day?" Joji asked. "Heh, that was so cute. I wonder if he named the 'com after her. Maybe he's got a crush on her, too!" The man laughed, but his wife only scowled.

"I hope not. I don't want my Junji to become one of those technosexual perverts."

"Hey, I was just kidding!" Joji said, surprised that Miki was taking his jests so seriously.

"I just don't trust that persocom," she muttered. "After we finish unpacking, I'm going to go check on him, just to make sure he isn't up to anything."

Joji just shrugged, and continued emptying the suitcases.


	17. Chapter 17

It was past eleven once they had finally settled in their hotel room. Joji was watching the news, while Miki slipped out, taking a key to Junji's dorm room that Junji had given his father earlier that day.

She was happy to find that the front door of the dorm building was still unlocked when she arrived, as she made her way up the stairs to the second floor. She wasn't sure exactly what she was expecting to find, but her instincts as a mother were making her very suspicious.

As she covertly put the key into the lock and turned it, she slowly opened the door and stepped into the dark room. She silent approached the bedroom area, but stopped as she saw a shadow move towards her. As it approached, she was able to make out the form of Minako.

"What are you doing here?" The persocom whispered.

"What, a mother can't come to see her own son?" Miki whispered back.

"He's asleep," Minako replied as she escorted the older woman back out into the hallway. "His classes have been tough on him lately so he needs his rest."

"Well, I guess I'll just be going then," Miki replied nonchalantly, but Minako grabbed her arm as she started to turn around.

"Not so fast," she began. "There's something fishy going on here."

"What do you mean?"

"If you didn't know Junji was going to bed early tonight, then you would have turned the lights on and announced yourself when you showed up. If you did know, you wouldn't have come in the first place. So you must have been trying to sneak in without us noticing."

"W-what?" Junji's mother said, still trying to feign ignorance. "Why would I want to do that?"

"You tell me," Minako replied, looking sternly at the woman. Miki sighed in defeat.

"Well Junji-kun was certainly right about one thing, you are smart."

The elf-eared girl smiled a bit, but then resumed her accusatory glare.

"The way he talks about you... I just want to make sure he's not... _up to something_ - with you..." Miki muttered.

Minako's scowl grew deeper. "I can assure you he's not. But just for the sake of argument, let's pretend he was. If we both consented to it, what would be the problem?"

Mrs. Takeda groaned. "I don't need to have this argument again. Goodbye." She said as she began to walk back towards the stairs.

"You mean you don't want to **lose** the argument again," Minako countered smugly.

This seemed to touch a nerve with Miki, as she spun around and came face - to - face with the persocom once more.

"You want to know why you're wrong? Fine, I'll tell you! Look around you, at the world!" She made a grandiose, sweeping gesture with her arms to emphasize the point. "Persocoms are built in factories, sold in stores, and thrown out at dumps and recycling plants, the same as any other appliance! If they were people, that wouldn't be allowed! Someone would have said something about it, and there would be laws to prevent it. But I've never heard of any such thing, or even the idea that persocoms are something other than just machines, except from you. When the entire world disagrees with you, that's a pretty good sign that you're wrong!"

Minako's face glared with anger for a fraction of a second, before subsiding into melancholy. "Oh Miki-san, you may be much older than me, but you're still so naive." The condescending tone of her reply took the older woman by surprise. "Just because you personally have not heard of a problem doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. Persocoms have only been around for a few years now, after all, so it makes sense that this issue doesn't have widespread public recognition yet. There are a few persocom rights groups on the net, but they're not very influential. It took human slavery centuries, even millenia, to be abolished-"

Miki cut off her speech, looking annoyed. "Make all the excuses you want. You're a delusional machine, and that's that!" With that, she stomped off down the stairs and headed back to her car. Minako sighed and headed back inside the dorm room, only to be greeted by a very groggy Junji.

"...Did I just hear my mom?" He asked, standing in front of her while half asleep.

"It's nothing, Junji, go back to sleep," Minako said, walking him back to bed. As he laid back down, the green-haired 'com thought to herself. For all of Mrs. Takeda's bigoted ranting, she had hit on an important point - not enough was being done to spread awareness of the issue of persocom rights. With that notion, Minako began her most ambitious project to date, as she opened a word processing application in her head and started writing.

* * *

The next morning, Junji awoke to the sight of Minako standing over his bed.

"Aaah!" He screamed in surprise, jerking backwards. "Minako, don't do that!"

"Sorry," she said sheepishly. "But I've been waiting for you to wake up, I've got something I really want to show you!

"Can it wait?" He replied, still tired.

"I suppose so," the green-haired girl replied, sighing, as she went into the kitchen to start preparing Junji's breakfast. A few minutes later, he was up and dressed, as he sat down and started eating.

"So what is it you wanted me to look at?"

Minako winked and went to grab a portable terminal and bring it to the breakfast table. She pulled a cable out from behind her ear and plugged it in. The screen lit up, displaying a title in stylized text.

**I am Not a Thing**

_**A Persocom's Reflections on an Unjust Society**_

Junji just stared at it for a few seconds, then rubbed his eyes.

"Um... what is it?"

Minako facepalmed.

"It's a book I'm writing!" She explained. "I figure spreading awareness about the issue is one of the best things I can do to help change the status quo. If enough humans read this, hopefully they'll start to think twice about how they treat persocoms."

"Wow," Junji said, looking closer at the screen. "How far into it are you?"

"I just started last night, but I've already completed drafts of the first three chapters, take a look."

The screen changed to show a table of contents.

**1. I may not bleed, but I feel all the same**

**2. Slavery still thrives today**

**3. Refuting common myths**

Junji chuckled slightly, much to Minako's consternation.

"What's so funny?" She asked, irritated.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh, it's just the title of that first chapter... it's a bit too melodramatic, don't you think?"

Minako's expression softened as she considered this.

"Yeah, it kind of is, now that I think about it." She began to laugh herself. "I'll have to come up with something else. By the way, I was thinking of asking you to write the forward. How about it?"

"Only if I'm in the dedication," Junji replied, laughing again.

"No need to worry, who else would I dedicate it to?" Minako said. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek as he finished his breakfast.

* * *

Later that day, Junji's parents had once again come over to the dorm. Miki and Minako were still giving each other death glares when they thought no one else could see, but other than that, everyone seemed to be getting along well.

Junji suggested a schedule for the day. He thought that it would just be adding fuel to the fire to make his mother and Minako spend more time together, so he suggested that he take Miki on a tour of the city, while Joji and Minako could take a walk around the local neighborhood.

At first, Miki objected, saying that Junji should be spending time with both of his parents, but Junji got her to relent by saying that he had already had a chance to spend time with his dad, and now he wanted to have some quality time with his mom, as well. Joji and Minako had no problems with the arrangement, so they set off in Junji's new car, as Minako and Joji waved goodbye.

After they had left, Mr. Takeda spoke up.

"So, you're going to show me around? I hope there's a decent restaurant within walking distance, I didn't have much of a breakfast today."

Minako smiled. "Sure, there are a lot of great places. Do you prefer traditional Japanese or western cuisine, because-"

"I don't feel like sitting at a table and waiting for food," he said, cutting her off. "Let me just grab something here, that should hold me for at least a few hours." With that, he walked over to the refrigerator and grabbed an instant ramen packet, heating it up in the microwave.

"So, Joji-san," Minako tried to strike up a conversation. "What do you do for a living?"

"Junji-kun never told you?" He replied between bites.

"No, I guess we just never got around to talking about it," she said.

"Well, I'm an investment banker. Miki used to work at a law firm, but she's retired now."

'_A lawyer. That explains some of her arguments, at least_,' Minako thought.

"You know, this is the first time I've ever really talked to a persocom," Mr. Takeda said, finishing his noodles.

"Surely there are a lot of 'coms at your office?"

"I actually mostly telecommute. It's easier these days. Come on, let's get going."

They stood up and left the dorm, beginning a stroll along the block.

"Hey, I have a question," Joji said.

"Shoot," Minako replied absent-mindedly, paying more attention to anyone else she saw on the street. Running into one or more of Junji's classmates would be the last thing she needed right now.

"What's the square root of three?"

"What?" Minako did a double - take at this odd question.

"You're a computer, aren't you? So calculate it!"

"Why?" Minako asked, having stopped and now looking pissed off.

"I don't know, just to see if you can," Junji's dad replied, seemingly oblivious to her irritation.

"One point seven three two oh five," she said, sighing. "Satisfied?"

"That's not the whole thing," Joji said, in a jesting voice. "Calculate it to the end!"

"It's an irrational number, there is no end. I'm guessing you probably know that, so what are you trying to accomplish here?"

"Try calculating it anyway!" He said, clearly having too much fun to notice that Minako was taking offense. She decided to try to try his own strategy of comedy against him. She stood absolutely still, making streaks of light run across her eyes as she pretended to carry out his instruction.

"Calculating..." she said, in a monotone voice. A few seconds later, she snapped out of it. "Okay, done!"

"Done?" Joji asked in confusion.

"Yep, I calculated the whole thing. The last digit is 7, by the way." Joji just stared at her.

"You're... joking, right?" He finally said, looking more perplexed than ever.

"Of course I am!" Minako said, laughing. "What did you expect?"

Mr. Takeda soon joined in the laugh, as they started walking again. "It's just that in stories I've read, an intelligent computer usually gets all tripped up by problems like that, so I wanted to try it myself!"

The elf-eared 'com sighed. "Takeda-san, those old sci-fi stories were written before modern persocom AI programs were developed. They're about as accurate as the people who predicted that we'd all have flying cars by now."

"Heh, I guess you're right. Still, it was worth a try." He paused for a few seconds. "Say, Minako-san, is the answer to this question _no_?"

Minako rolled her eyes at yet another poor attempt to logic - bomb her. She then smirked and replied "It isn't."

Joji looked puzzled for a few more seconds, before comprehension dawned on his face. "Damn, you're good, girl!" He said, laughing, and gently slapped her on the back. "Okay, how about this one. Does the set of all sets that do not contain themsel-"

"Mr. Takeda, can we please move on to something else?" She cut him off. "This might be fun for you, and I know you mean no harm, but personally I find it pretty offensive."

"Oh come on, you don't need to get offended by every little thing," he said. "But if you insist, I'll stop."

"Thank you," she said, smiling at him.

"But still, you're a lot smarter than I thought you'd be," he said, respect in his voice. "I hope Junji-kun doesn't have you doing all of his homework for him!"

She laughed. "No, I just help him with a bit of error-checking. I've got some writing of my own to do, after all."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'll tell you about it." They continued to discuss Minako's book and other things as they toured the neighborhood. At one point she identified Miho Katsura leaving a store a few dozen meters away, and subtly changed their path so as not to come close to her, but other than that there was no trouble.

* * *

As they returned to the dorm, Joji got some more to eat, while he and Minako continued to chat. Eventually the subject drifted to Junji's childhood.

"And in private school he had a huge crush on this Fujimoto girl, he would pick flowers for her every day before school, it was so adorable!" Joji laughed. "Of course this was back at the age where it wasn't considered cool to like girls, so whenever we asked about it he would just say he was ripping the flowers out of the ground because they were ugly!" Minako had to laugh at this one too.

'_Luckily he's gotten a lot better at lying to his parents since then_,' she thought to herself.

"As far as I know he never got anywhere with that girl," Joji continued, "but he moved on. By the way, she had the same name as you, Minako."

"Oh, really?" The persocom asked, her smile twisting into a mischievous grin. "He never told me about this."

"Well it might just be a coincidence," Mr. Takeda said.

_'It might be, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to tease him mercilessly about it_,' Minako thought to herself, laughing. At that point they heard the front door open, and saw that Miki and Junji had returned.

"That was really nice," his mother said, as they ascended the stairs. "I've always wanted to see Nijo Castle in person, but I just never got around to it."

"I actually haven't been there myself in almost a year, it was fun to go again."

"Yasaka Shrine was fun, too. Very atmospheric." Miki said.

"Yeah, you should see it during Gion Matsuri, though. It's a madhouse!" Junji laughed.

"I can imagine." They entered the dorm room to see Minako and Joji. "How was your day, dear?"

"Not as exciting as yours, from what it sounds like," Joji said, smiling, as he gave his wife a hug. "Still, Minako-chan here showed me a few nice local restaurants."

"I hope you didn't pig out again," Miki told him sternly.

"Don't worry, he only had a few snacks from the fridge here," Minako answered. Miki snorted almost inaudibly, still refusing to make eye contact with the persocom.

"I'll pay you back for the cost of the food, Junji-kun," his dad said, reaching for his wallet.

"That's really not necessary-" Junji began to protest, but Joji had already handed him several bills. The younger man sighed and reluctantly accepted them. After everyone had finished recounting their day to each other, Junji's parents finally left.

* * *

"So, how's the book coming?" Junji asked.

"I haven't actually had time to do much more with it today, it's still in basically the same state as it was when I showed it to you this morning. But to change the subject, your dad told me something interesting during our walk..."

"Really, what was that?" The college student asked, oblivious to what was coming next.

Minako smirked devilishly. "You used to have a crush on a girl in primary school, and her name was..."


	18. Chapter 18

"Her name was Minako," the persocom finished. Junji started blushing intensely.

"Well, um, err..."

"Should I be jealous?" The green-haired girl asked, smiling deviously.

"What? No! I haven't seen her in years! I mean..."

Minako just laughed. "You named me after her, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I mean no, I mean, uh..." Junji's blush was becoming positively radiant.

"It's okay, Junji-kun," she said, half-mockingly. "I think it's pretty cute actually." She gave him a kiss, continuing to laugh at his embarrassed reaction.

"Yeah... well... glad to finally get that out of the bag... I guess..." he muttered, his blush starting to subside.

Minako giggled again, as she went over to retrieve her portable terminal.

"Going to show me more of your book?" Junji inquired.

"Nope. Get your coat on," she answered, smiling.

"What, are we going somewhere?"

"Just out to the balcony. There's going to be a meteor shower tonight, I figured you might want to watch it with me."

"That sounds fun," he said, as he finished putting on his coat. The two of them stepped outside and stared up into the night.

* * *

"I don't see anything," Junji said, after a few minutes of stargazing.

"Be patient," Minako chided him. "There's about one every 4 minutes. Or rather, one bright enough to see with the naked eye."

"Huh. I bet you've been seeing a lot of them."

"Yep. Check it out." She handed over the terminal which she had plugged into her cable and cycled through a few snapshots of meteors that she had captured with her enhanced vision.

"Nice, but it's not quite the same as seeing them for myself-"

"Junji, look!" She cut him off, pointing at the night sky. He quickly whipped his head upwards, but saw nothing. He turned his gaze back to the 'com in confusion.

"Sorry, you just missed it," she said apologetically.

"You better not have been just screwing with me," he said, half-serious.

She laughed. "You know me, Junji. Would I do that?" He began to speak, but she cut him off. "Don't answer that." They both started chuckling. Just then, Junji finally spotted a bright, white streak of light flash across the sky.

"Hey, I saw one!" He exclaimed.

"See, I told you," Minako said, smiling as she gently leaned against him. the two of them continuing to look upwards.

* * *

Meanwhile, Joji and Miki were heading back to the dorm building, after Miki realized she had left her purse there by accident. As Joji drove into the parking lot, he saw the outlines of two people on a dorm balcony, and they were... holding hands? Wait, that was Junji's balcony!

He quickly parked on the opposite side of the building, knowing that his wife would throw a fit if she knew he saw what he thought he saw.

Junji and Minako both ran to the door when they heard the knock, and managed to appear inconspicuous as Miki entered the dorm room.

Junji, having deduced what she had come for, handed her her purse, which she had left on the table.

"Shouldn't your persocom have noticed something like this?" Miki asked bitterly.

"Hey, since when did I become your personal secretary?" Minako shot back. The two glared at each other again, until Junji laughed nervously.

"Mom, you only have one more day here, do you really need to waste your time feuding with Minako?"

"I guess not," Mrs. Takeda sighed. Minako stuck her tongue out at Miki as she turned to leave, which made Joji laugh.

"What's so funny, dear?" His wife asked him, but he told her it was nothing.

* * *

**Six Months Later**

Junji's parents had long returned to their home, and they still kept in touch. Junji and his mother were on amicable terms, and she seemed to have mostly forgotten about her feud with the elf-eared persocom. Speaking of Minako, about a week later she and Junji had finally gone on a date without concealing their identities. They were openly mocked by many, but they persevered and went on several more. Minako also finally finished the draft of her book and found a publisher for it. However, there was a problem.

"I can't believe this!" She stormed across the room, angrily stomping her feet. "Don't they realize that this is exactly the kind of thing I wrote the book to address!"

"Minako, it's not that bad," Junji tried to calm her down. "They'll still list you as the author on the cover and all the promotional materials."

"Yeah, with the caveat that all of the royalties and IP rights belong to you!"

"You know I'll let you make all the decisions regarding those," Junji objected.

"That's not the point! As a persocom, I have no legal rights, so the publisher won't even recognize my intellectual control over my own work! You'd figure if they were willing to publish a book with content like this in the first place, they wouldn't have such blatant double standards!"

"It's not their fault, Minako, those are the laws. You know that."

"Yes," she sighed, starting to calm down a bit. "But they should really be changed. Hopefully the publication of this book will do something to start that process."

"We can only hope. Let's change the subject," Junji said, trying to cheer his girlfriend up. "How are things going at that club of yours?"

The green-haired girl rolled her eyes. "It's not a club, it's a Persocom Rights Advocacy Group." She told him, for what felt like the thousandth time (although her memory banks confirmed it was only the fourth). About a month previously, she was surprised to hear that a PRA organization had spontaneously formed in downtown Kyoto, and held weekly meetings. She had, of course, attended every one so far, but Junji was nearing the end of his semester and had been working too hard lately to come.

"Yeah, yeah," Junji said sarcastically. "But despite the fancy name, all it really is is a social club. I've heard they don't really have the influence to change anything."

"Not yet, you mean," Minako countered. "But we've been discussing plans for several public awareness campaigns, and with the publication of my book I think we're really going to take off soon! Especially with Ryuhei-san's vision, he really has a knack for this work."

"Oh, of course, the famous Ryuhei-san," Junji rolled his eyes. "The brilliant visionary who will save the world from fascist tyranny, or something. I've heard just about enough about that guy these past few weeks."

"There's no need for jealousy, Junji," Minako giggled. "I respect Ryuhei-san as a professional colleague, that's all. After all, he beat me to starting a PRA group in Kyoto. You've got to give the man credit."

"I suppose. When is the next club meeting anyway?"

Minako narrowed her eyes at Junji's use of the word 'club' again, but she saw from his barely - suppressed smirk that he was just teasing her.

"Nine PM tomorrow. You think you can make it this time?"

"Actually, yeah," Junji said, standing up from the work he had been doing on the computer terminal. "I've mostly finished my papers by now, and I'm eager to finally see what all the fuss is about."

"Great!" Minako said, beaming. "I know you'll like it."

**Author's Note: Sorry for the short and somewhat lacking chapter, I was having a bit of writers block figuring out how to end the parents storyline and transfer to the next one. However, I've got some much more interesting plotlines coming up, including the return of some characters from earlier in the story that we haven't seen for a while, so keep your eyes out for that in the next few chapters.**


	19. Chapter 19

**The Next Day**

Junji was dressed in his best formal suit, as he wanted to make a good impression at the PRA group meeting, despite his earlier teasing about it. After Minako pulled the car into a modestly - sized parking lot, they got out and approached the front door of the small office building which the group rented out one night every week.

"Minako-chan! Glad you could make it!" A young man greeted her. The two of them shared a short, friendly hug, as she returned the salutation. Junji examined the man. He looked slightly younger than he did, and had a tall and athletic physique, complimented by a brown suit and, incongruously, a baseball cap, turned backwards. "And this must be Junji-san," he continued, inspecting the college student. "He's a bit shorter than I expected..."

Minako laughed, while Junji just rolled his eyes. "And I suppose you must be Ryuhei-san?" He asked, trying to hide the irritation in his voice.

"At your service," he said, taking off his cap with one hand and extending the other to shake Junji's. After the handshake was over, Junji looked up and gasped slightly.

"Wait, you're a-" he began, staring at the now-exposed, circular plastic ears attached to the other boy's head.

"Yeah, what of it?" Ryuhei asked in a condescending tone. "You are aware of what this meeting is for, right?"

"Yes, but it's just that, well, Minako has been talking about you so much lately, but she never mentioned that-"

"Why would she need to?" Ryuhei cut him off yet again. "I suggest you check your organic privilege," he said smugly, turning around and walking off. Junji and Minako just stood there, bemused.

"_I suggest you check your organic privilege_," Junji muttered sarcastically. "Can you believe that guy, Minako?"

The green-haired girl scowled. "Junji, stop causing trouble. We want Ryuhei-san and the others to like you, remember?" She then quickly ran to catch up with the male 'com, and the two started chatting happily as they walked down the hall.

Junji grimaced with an intense flare of - was it jealousy? He quickly reassured himself.

'_Minako said they were just friends, there's nothing to worry about._' He followed them into the main meeting room.

* * *

There were at least a dozen people there, both humans and persocoms, ranging from teenagers to a few who looked to be in their 40s. He recognized Masahiko and Kameko, but none of the others. Minako led him to a seat in one of the chairs that had been set up, and Ryuhei took the stand behind the podium at the far end of the room.

"Everyone, I'd like to introduce our new guest. First of all, you all know Minako-san," at this, the elf-eared 'com stood up and took a bow, as the others clapped. Junji quickly joined in. "I'd now like to introduce her boyfriend, Mr. Junji Takeda."

Junji blushed a bit - he still wasn't completely used to having their relationship called to attention in public. However, unlike the reactions he was used to, everyone here greeted him kindly, which made him relax somewhat.

"Now let's start the meeting. The first item on our agenda, of course, is the protest march scheduled for later this month. I've received clearance from the local government to stage a demonstration, but the problem is that we need more people to actually show up. I know most of you have friends and families that are supportive of our cause, so try to convince them how important this is to you, and maybe we can get a few more demonstrators."

Minako turned her head towards Junji and gave him a look that silently said "_You're coming, right?_" Junji frowned nervously.

"Um, excuse me?" He spoke up. Ryuhei turned to look at him. "Exactly when will this protest be held?"

"It's tentatively set to start at 9 AM on the 30th," the male persocom replied. "If you have any prior commitments we could try to work around them."

"Well, no, I don't, but that is kind of early in the morning, and with my coursework I need all the sleep I can get," Junji replied sheepishly. Almost everyone in the room turned to glare at him, as if he had just sworn out loud or insulted their mothers.

Ryuhei's voice took on that condescending tone again. "Well, if a few extra hours of sleep are more important to you than fighting for civil justice, of course I understand. I trust the rest of us know where our priorities lie, though."

Everyone else, including Minako, nodded in assent.

"Hey, I didn't mean-" Junji began, but then started to shrink under the renewed glare of the assembled group. "Okay, okay, I'll be there! I promise!" He said in surrender.

"Good," Ryuhei replied, smug as ever. "Now for the matter of educational material to be distributed on-site, I've taken the liberty of printing out some pamphlets with information on persocom rights. I'd like you all to take a look at them and tell me what you think." He reached into a duffel bag behind the podium and pulled out a dozen thin pieces of paper and began handing them out.

Just as Junji began inspecting his copy, the building's doorbell rang.

"Excuse me one moment," Ryuhei said, as he left to get the door.

Junji shrugged and went back to the pamphlet, noticing it mostly contained a lot of the same talking points from Minako's book, albeit in a vastly condensed form. He was soon startled out of his reading, though, by the sound of crying. Ryuhei returned, a very familiar blonde persocom leaning on his shoulder.

* * *

"Azami-chan? Is that you?" Minako asked, rushing over to comfort the distressed 'com. Azami's model hadn't been designed with the ability to cry liquid tears, but she was doing her best to sob anyway, and the sound, at least, was straight on.

A flash of recognition dawned in her eyes as she spotted Minako, but before the green haired 'com could reach her, Ryuhei took her by the arm and pulled her up next to the podium, as he began to speak.

"My friends, this poor, innocent girl has just come to us for aid, and is a perfect example of the kind of corruption we seek to do away with. She has obviously been subjected to a great trauma, one that our human - dominated society has done nothing to amend. Fortuitously, she found her way to us. It is our duty as persocom rights advocates..."

Junji's attention drifted from Ryuhei's words and focused on Azami. She was clearly distressed, and he could spot a few small areas where her artificial skin had been nearly scraped away. One thing was for sure - she was not enjoying all of this attention. She cowered in the corner of the room, her eyes closed, and her head timidly turned away from the crowd.

"Ryuhei-san," Junji spoke up, "she just got here, and she's scared. You shouldn't be making a spectacle of her like this!" Before he could reply, Azami had finally had enough, and dashed out of the room. Junji noted that her legs made a distinctive mechanical whirring sound, and she had a noticeable limp, despite her speed.

"Azami-chan!" Minako yelled in distress. She pulled Junji out of his seat and rushed to the door, quickly looking back. "We're going to find her, she will probably be more comfortable with just the two of us since she knows us." Ryuhei just nodded, slightly shocked by this turn of events.

* * *

"Azami! Azami-chan, where are you?" Junji and Minako called out, as they searched the empty hallways and rooms of the building.

"Azami, we're your friends, remember?" Still, there was no reply. When they reached a junction between three corridors on the second floor, Minako made the suggestion to split up. Junji agreed, and soon they were individually searching separate rooms.

"Junji, I found her!" Came a cry a few minutes later. Junji ran over to where he heard his girlfriend's voice, and saw her standing outside the door to a small janitor's closet. As he peered in, the petite form of Azami became visible, but she quickly cringed and attempted to hide behind a row of old mops.

"Maybe I should talk to her first," Minako whispered. Junji nodded mutely.

"Azami-chan?" She whispered softly, carefully approaching the terrified girl. "Azami-chan, it's me, Minako. Do you remember me?"

"M-Minako-san?"

"Yes, I'm here," she said, gently embracing the shorter 'com. "You're safe now, no one is going to hurt you."

Azami hugged Minako tightly, and started sobbing again. "Minako-san, I-I..."

"It's okay, let it all out," the elf-eared girl comforted her.

"Fumio-san," she said the name with a combination of fear and contempt. "He- he, was very upset, when he was expelled... he took it out on me! He did terrible things to me! So I ran away. One night he was so drunk he forgot to deactivate me, and I snuck out while he was sleeping. I never looked back, but I had nowhere to go. A few days ago I saw a flier on a telephone poll, advertising a meeting for supporters of persocom rights. I decided to come here. I-I didn't expect there to be so many humans."

Minako thought her last comment odd, but ignored it for now. "Why didn't you come to see Junji and me?"

"I was afraid he would send me back to Fumio-san!" She said, shaking her head rapidly.

"Junji-san wouldn't do that," Minako said firmly.

"I don't trust him!" Azami cried out in objection. "I don't trust humans at all anymore! They only want to use us, and - and hurt us!" She continued crying.

"That's not true, Azami-chan," Minako said patiently. "Not all humans are bad people. For example, Junji-kun is-"

"He didn't care about what happened to me!" She yelled in protest. "He cared more about Fumio's college career! He was going to just turn a blind eye while I was being abused!"

Junji finally joined the conversation himself. "Yes, that was true back then, but I've changed now. If I could go back and do things all over again, I would have agreed with you and Minako."

"I don't believe you!" She shouted, almost becoming hysterical. As he stepped into the closet, she squirmed out of Minako's grasp and further back into a corner, a look of fear in her eyes. "Humans can't be trusted!"

'_Wow,_' Junji thought. '_She's really afraid of me._' He wisely decided to back out and give her more space.

"Well regardless of what you believe, you can't go the rest of your life without interacting with humans," Minako told her.

"I know," she said, calming down slightly. "But I wish I could..."

Minako embraced the blonde 'com again, doing her best to soothe her.

"Well since you sought us out, I'm guessing you don't want to go back to living on the streets again, right?"

Azami shook her head.

"Then you can stay with Junji and me until you find a better home."

"_**What?**_" Junji and Azami said simultaneously. Minako glared at him, as if to say 'back me up on this, okay?' Junji nodded.

"I don't want to live with him," the blonde girl said, frightened.

"Don't worry," Minako reassured her. "He won't do anything to hurt you. I can guarantee that."

Azami opened her eyes and looked up at Minako, the vaguest hint of a smile crossing her lips, the first time in 2 months, 8 days, 13 hours, 47 minutes, and 22 seconds that such a thing had happened, according to her internal clock.

"Promise?" She asked the green-haired girl.

"Promise," Minako replied, smiling back down at her.

**Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Webidolchiu94, who has great fics of her own (look her up via the author search) was kind enough to draw a picture of Minako on deviantart. I still think the first pic I linked is a more accurate representation, but she certainly did a good job. The link to it is on my profile, comment on it if you like it. AU versions of Junji and Minako also have roles in her fic "Eternal Flowers", so check that out too if you like this (it has a lot of crossovers so it might be a bit confusing though, but I like it).**


	20. Chapter 20

After explaining to Ryuhei and the others that they would be taking Azami home, Junji and Minako got in the car. This time Junji was driving, while Minako kept Azami company in the back seat.

"Since she'll be staying with us, we should probably get her repaired. Tomorrow we can head to the local repair shop, it shouldn't cost that much to patch her damaged skin and fix her leg." Junji suggested.

Minako was about to make a snarky comment about the time Junji had taken her to that same shop, but quickly stopped herself. Although her boyfriend would know she was just teasing, she didn't want Azami to know that Junji had once tried to have her forcibly reprogrammed. Still, the short blonde 'com found a cause for distress.

"I don't want humans messing with my body while I'm offline," she whimpered.

"They have persocom workers there-" Minako began, but was cut off.

"They're just slaves to the humans! I don't trust them!"

Junji sighed. He did feel pity for the poor girl, but she was being difficult nonetheless. Suddenly he had an idea.

"Why don't you fix her, Minako?"

"Me?" The elf-eared 'com asked.

"Yeah, I mean you were able to remove your own activation switch. You should be able to handle this."

"I guess I could," she mused, "but I might need some specialized parts."

"No problem, once you run a diagnostic on her you can tell me what you need and I'll pick them up at the shop."

"Is that okay with you, Azami-chan?" Minako asked. In response, the smaller girl hugged Minako and smiled.

* * *

Azami looked nervous as they ascended the stairs to the dorm room. Junji supposed that made sense - even though she knew on an intellectual level that Fumio no longer resided here, many bad memories were probably triggered by the familiar building.

Just as they had reached Junji's room, a door on the opposite side of the hallway opened, and out stepped another person Azami remembered.

"Hey Junji-san, Minako-san," Hitomi began. "How was the-" she paused briefly as she noticed the new face. "Azami-chan, is that you?"

"Yeah, believe it or not," Junji answered. "She-" before he could continue, though, Hitomi started grinning and ran over to embrace the blonde persocom. Before she could take two steps, Azami had jumped back in fright and cowered cowering behind Minako.

"Azami-chan? What's wrong? Don't you remember me?" Hitomi asked, puzzled. Azami just shut her eyes tightly and cringed, as Hitomi slowly backed away.

Minako took the scared 'com's hand and led her into the dorm room, while Junji explained the situation to the human girl.

* * *

"I see," Hitomi said, after the events of the night, as well as Azami's past, had been effectively summarized. "Poor Azami-chan... I hope she feels better."

"If she were human, I would say she is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder," the psychology student pondered.

"Is there a cure for that?" Hitomi asked.

"There's no cure, per se, but there are various types of behavioral therapy that can help alleviate the condition. Of course, those are only for human beings." Junji answered.

"Why not try them anyway?"

"Psychotherapy on a persocom?" Junji considered the unorthodox idea.

"Why not? What have you got to lose?" Hitomi continued.

Junji rested his chin in his hand for a minute, thinking. "It's certainly a novel suggestion. I suppose it's worth a try. Still, it would probably pay to wait until I've observed her behavior over a longer period of time, and she can trust me enough to at least talk to me."

"If anyone can help her, I know it's you, Junji-kun!" said Hitomi, with an encouraging smile.

* * *

**The Next Day**

The damage to Azami's body had turned out to be less severe than Minako had initially suspected. Aside from the many patches of frayed skin, the greatest problem was a bundle of artificial muscle fibers in her right leg, which had suffered severe tearing. The servomotors that augmented them had to work overtime to compensate, which was the source of the distinctive whirring noise that was heard whenever she walked. They were lucky that the problem had been identified so soon, for if it was allowed to continue much longer, the servomotors themselves would give out, not only crippling the persocom but making it much more expensive to repair her.

Luckily, the toolkit Junji kept in the dorm had enough artificial skin polymer to being repairing the external damage, so Minako had gotten started on that while Junji had gone to the repair shop to buy the rest of the components they needed.

Minako carefully applied some of the viscous polymer to the other persocom's shoulder, then covered it with a specialized bandage. According to the instructions, after a few hours the polymer would merge with the artificial skin already present, and no one would be able to tell the difference. Over a dozen of these bandages adorned Azami's body, but Minako was only about halfway done. Unfortunately, she had just run out of polymer.

"I guess we have to wait until Junji-san returns from the shop," Azami said.

"Not necessarily," Minako objected. "I know another persocom who lives in this building, the human he lives with (Minako refused to say '_owner_') probably has a repair kit like this one. I might be able to borrow some more polymer. Just wait here, okay?" The green-haired girl stood up, smiling at Azami as she left the room.

Azami waited for a few minutes, but soon started to get impatient. Carefully pulling herself up from the sitting position she was in, she left the bathroom area and approached the door to the hallway. She soon heard footsteps getting closer.

"Minako-san? Is that you?" As she reached for the doorknob, the door suddenly opened from the other side.

Junji could only stare, aghast, at the sight that greeted him upon his return. Of course, to mend all of the damage to Azami's skin, Minako had required that she remove her clothes, which were, at this point, still lying in the bathroom.

Before he could regain enough control of his faculties to close his eyes or look away, he heard a shrill cry.

"_**Pervert!**_" The blonde 'com yelled, as she attempted to run back to the bathroom area, but tripped on the rug due to her malfunctioning leg. By this time, Junji had run back into the hallway and slammed the door behind him, looking for a tissue to wipe up his slight nosebleed, and hoping that no one would come to investigate Azami's outburst.

Just then, he spied Minako approaching.

"Junji, did you get the - wait, why are you bleeding?" She asked, concerned.

"Well, I... um..." Junji started to blush. Minako scowled at him. "It was an accident, I swear! I opened the door and she was just standing there, completely-"

Minako cut him off with a groan, surmising what had happened. "Go to the bathroom down the hall and clean yourself off," she said, as she picked up the bags of supplies he had dropped and entered the dorm room.

* * *

It took over 2 hours to fully repair Azami, during which Junji spent his time in Hitomi's room, the blonde persocom not willing to let him in his own dorm after the 'incident' earlier, despite how many times he and Minako explained that it had been an accident.

After she was fully functional (and fully clothed), she finally relented, but she still kept looking at him nervously and saying as far away from him as was possible in the singular dorm room. Finally, the college student went to bed, while the two persocoms, not needing sleep, sat next to each other on the couch.

"Azami-chan, I know you're traumatized, but you could be a bit more grateful to Junji-san," Minako whispered. "After all, he agreed to take you in, and he paid for the components to repair you."

"He's a dirty pervert," the shorter 'com whispered back, seeming very petulant.

"You know that was an accident," Minako replied, a slight scolding tone in her voice.

"He got a nosebleed from seeing my naked body," Azami countered.

"Well most of the time guys can't really help that," the green-haired 'com explained.

"Is that what he told you the first time he peeped on you?"

"Junji-san has never done such a thing!" Minako replied, indignant.

"You mean he just hasn't been caught yet," Azami said. Minako sighed. This girl's cynicism was starting to get on her nerves. She decided to try once again to expound on Junji's altruism.

"You know, I help him out a lot at school, but now that you're here, he's going to have to give that up, since I'll have to stay here to keep you company."

"He agreed to that?" Azami asked skeptically.

"Well, I haven't exactly had a chance to bring it up yet... but I'm sure he will," Minako answered. "He knows that you would be too nervous to come to the campus, and too scared to stay home alone."

"I'll believe it when he actually says it," the blonde 'com replied.

"I guess that's the best we could hope for," Minako muttered.

* * *

The next morning, Junji woke up early, rubbing his eyes as he slowly got out of bed. As he ate the breakfast Minako prepared for him, she brought up the issue that had been discussed last night.

"Yeah, I guess it makes sense for you to stay here with her... it will be a pain taking notes the old way again, but I think I can handle it."

Minako chuckled at that, and the two shared a kiss as Junji left to get in his car.

After he had left, Azami slowly peeked her head out from the bathroom area, where she had been hiding.

"See? He didn't have a problem with it." Minako said.

"I guess... but did you really have to kiss him?" Azami replied.

"Why shouldn't I have?" Minako said sternly, crossing her arms.

"He... well... I just don't think you should trust a human like that. He doesn't really care about you..."

Minako's scowl deepened, but her expression then softened. "Azami-chan, I can't pretend to know what you've gone through, and I'm sure it must have been horrible for you. But despite that, not all humans are like Fumio. Junji does care about me, and I care about him."

"I still don't trust him," the blonde girl murmured.

"Well hopefully you will in time. After all, he hasn't done any of the things you were worried he would, right?"

"Except get aroused by seeing me naked."

Minako sighed. It was clear this was going to take a while.


	21. Chapter 21

**Author's note: Thanks to webidolchiu94 for reviewing my draft of this chapter! (I've also been beta reading for her story 'Eternal Flowers', check it out if you haven't already. IMO she's a better writer than I am...)**

* * *

Junji sighed as he drove back to the dorm. Without Minako by his side, the constant mockery he had been subjected to had somehow become even worse. One particularly uncouth boy had even suggested that Junji had thrown her in the trash after she malfunctioned from being forced to perform an excessive amount of... certain activities with him. It was a miracle that the psychology student had resisted the urge to deck the offender right in the face.

* * *

Junji remembered to knock before entering the dorm room this time. He didn't want a repeat of yesterday's fiasco.

"Come in," he heard Minako say. She and Azami were sitting on the couch. Azami looked away and cringed slightly when she saw the young man enter.

"It's okay, Azami, you don't need to be afraid," Minako soothed the shorter 'com. Junji put down his bags and walked over, Azami eyeing him carefully.

"You know, Azami-chan, I've actually been thinking of ways to help you," he said, attempting to break the ice. The blonde 'com just stared at him.

"For example," he continued, taking a USB stick out of his pocket, "this contains a modified version of the Beck Anxiety Index questionnaire. I edited the questions concerning physiological responses into what I believe would be appropriate analogues for persocoms. I'd like you to fill it out - you don't have to do it right away, just whenever you're comfortable." He handed the device to Azami and she slowly reached out to take it, plugging it into a port on one of her plastic ears.

Minako smiled at this display of trust. Standing up, she walked over to Junji and whispered in his ear.

"That's a sweet thing you're doing for her. I suppose, after she gives you her results, you're going to try a type of cognitive behavioral therapy?"

"Yeah, I've been working on some methods... do you want to review them with me?"

"Sure," the elf-eared 'com replied, looking at some of the papers Junji took out from a file.

* * *

Meanwhile, Azami examined the contents of the USB stick. The inventory asked her to rate a series of symptoms based on how much they had affected her over the past month - 0 for not at all, and 3 for severely. The first one was '_signal latency/other anomalies in your tactile sensor system._' She recalled that she was intermittently troubled by a recurring latency of several milliseconds - she had attributed it to her physical damage, but now that she was repaired she had still noticed it. She marked in 1 - _'mildly, but it didn't bother me much._'

The second symptom was overheating. Her internal temperature gauge had read a bit above normal when she had been close to humans (peaking at above the red line when Junji saw her naked). She marked answer 2 - '_moderately, it wasn't pleasant at times_'.

As she continued on to the third symptom, she began thinking more optimistically. 'Maybe Junji-san will be able to help me, after all...'

* * *

Shortly afterwards, Azami had finished filling out the survey and handed the USB stick to Minako, who gave it to Junji. He plugged it into the terminal at his desk and began reviewing her results.

"Well?" The green-haired girl asked.

"It's pretty much what I expected - she's severely traumatized, and the primary expression of her trauma seems to be a severe anxiety about humans."

"Do you have a program of treatment in mind?"

"Yeah, if you don't mind, I'd like your help to carry it out."

"Of course, I'd love to help," Minako responded. "What do you need me to do?"

"Well I figure we can start with some basic thought challenging, and then if we seem to be making progress with that, we can move on to exposure therapy and systematic desensitization. Here, I've come up with some exercises you can perform while I'm at school. Make sure to record the sessions so I can look them over later and modify the techniques as necessary." He handed Minako another USB stick, containing all of the ideas he had just summarized. She plugged it into a port behind her left ear and began reviewing the material.

* * *

Over the next week, Junji and Minako gave Azami regular therapy sessions. By having her identify her fears, and the thoughts she had in certain situations, they were able to rationally analyze them and break them down. Junji reviewed the sessions every afternoon and made suggestions and changes to the process when he felt it was necessary. Minako implemented some of her own ideas as well. Soon, they were ready for the next step. Junji and Hitomi both served as test subjects for the exposure therapy, and soon Azami was relatively comfortable with the both of them, although she was still nervous around humans she didn't know well.

As Minako returned from the grocery store across the way, she was thankful that Azami had finally reached the point where she was comfortable staying in the dorm alone with Junji. The elf-eared girl finished putting the groceries away, and then noticed her boyfriend typing intently at his terminal. He was so absorbed in his work that he didn't even seem to notice that she had arrived, so she decided to give him a surprise. Sneaking up behind him, she prepared to playfully embrace him, until she noticed the words on the screen.

She grabbed his shoulder, causing him to turn around and then gulp due to the stern look in her eyes. He was about to explain, but she spoke first.

"You're writing a report for your class on Azami's therapy?" She asked disapprovingly. When they had begun the sessions, they had assured the blonde persocom that confidentiality would be maintained.

"I'm so overworked, I can't focus on this _and_ another case for my paper!" He complained. "Besides, I didn't identify her by name or anything. I just called her 'Patient A'. I didn't even specify that she was a persocom." (Junji wisely left out the fact that if he had revealed the nature of 'Patient A', he probably would have failed the course).

Minako frowned, but accepted his reasoning. This wasn't really breaking confidentiality. Seeing this on her face, Junji decided to bring up another matter.

"I think we've done almost all we can with just us and Hitomi. I was thinking the next logical step would be to expose her to strangers, maybe take her for a walk outside."

"Do you think she's ready for that?" Minako asked, concerned.

"Why don't you ask her?" Suggested Junji. "She's over at Hitomi's room right now." Minako smiled.

"Okay, I will." She gave Junji a kiss on the cheek before leaving to find the other 'com.

* * *

Azami was shy at first, but she agreed to the walk. And at first, it was going well. They introduced her to several of the local store owners they knew, and gave her a tour of the neighborhood. She especially seemed to enjoy the local park.

"It seems like Azami-chan is finally coming out of her shell," Junji observed, watching her pick a flower from among the grass.

"I concur with your assessment, doctor," Minako replied teasingly. Junji laughed.

"Hey Azami-chan, it's starting to get dark, so I figure we should be heading home right now," he called to her, but for some reason she didn't respond. "Azami-chan?"

The short, blonde persocom had suddenly frozen in her tracks, dropping the flower and staring straight ahead in horror. Junji and Minako turned their heads to see what she was looking at, and they both gasped in unison.

On a nearby telephone pole near the edge of the street, there was nailed a flyer. It was a simple computer print-out, with the picture of a very familiar face in the center. It read:

**LOST PERSOCOM**

**RESPONDS TO 'AZAMI'**

**20,000 YEN REWARD**

Followed by Fumio's contact information.

They all stared in shock for a few seconds. Junji was the first one to break the silence.

"This is not good," he said, stating the obvious.


	22. Chapter 22

**Author's note: Thanks for all the reviews! However, I've noticed some of my reviewers seem to be unable to spell Azami's name correctly. It's not that hard. (Just messing around with you, it's no big deal).**

* * *

Minako ran up to the telephone pole and unceremoniously tore the flyer off of it, inspecting it more closely. It had a phone number and an e-mail address, but Fumio's physical address was not listed. She folded the paper and stuck it in her pocket as she turned to look back at Junji and Azami. The blonde persocom had broken out of her initial state of shock, but was now cowering meekly behind the psychology student.

"Don't let him take me," she whispered softly. Junji gently patted her head.

"We won't, but right now we should probably head back to the dorm."

Minako concurred, and the two of them escorted Azami back down the street, the short girl shielding her face to prevent anyone from recognizing her. On the way back, Minako noticed two more flyers identical to the one they saw earlier, but didn't say anything for fear of further alarming Azami.

* * *

When they made it back to the dorm room, Azami seemed slightly relieved, but still panicked. Minako decided to try to comfort her.

"Junji and I will never give you back to him, Azami-chan. There's no need to be afraid," she said as she sat next to the blonde 'com, giving her a reassuring hug.

"You won't have a choice! He legally owns me, if he demands me back, you'll have to give me up or go to jail!"

"That's assuming he finds out where you are," Minako countered, smiling. "And we're not going to let that happen."

Azami scowled. "So what am I supposed to do, spend the rest of my life without ever leaving this dorm room? If anyone sees me in public they could turn me in!"

Minako noted that the therapy seemed to be making progress - just a week ago, Azami didn't even consider leaving the dorm.

"We'll think of something, I promise," The elf-eared persocom said. "But for now, it would probably be best for you to lay low."

Azami gave a slight smile, and then buried her face in Minako's shirt, the taller 'com hugging her again.

* * *

The next day, morose thoughts occupied Junji Takeda's mind as he strolled down the corridors between classes. Even if they were able to keep Azami's location a secret, she would effectively be a prisoner in his dorm room for who-knows-how-long, which could seriously impair her recovery. While pondering this dilemma, he didn't even notice another student who turned a corner in front of him, and the two nearly collided.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" A voice chastised him.

"Sorry, I guess I wasn't paying att-" Junji stopped mid-word as he noticed who he was addressing. "Tadao-san?"

"Junji-kun?" The other boy came to a similar realization. The two hadn't seen much of each other recently, for various reasons.

"So how are things going with your girlfriend?" Tadao asked, with a bit of a mischievous tone to his voice. Junji just sighed dejectedly.

"That bad, huh?" Tadao replied, smirking. Seeing that his teasing had failed to elicit a reaction, he assumed a more serious timbre. "Hey, what's the matter?"

Looking around carefully, Junji noticed no one else in the immediate vicinity, and so he made the decision to confide in his friend. He just hoped it wasn't a decision he would later come to regret.

"Do you remember Fumio-san?"

"How could anyone forget that guy?" Tadao replied. "I saw one of his _auctions_ once... it left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm glad he got expelled."

"Yeah, well apparently he's back in town." Junji began. "Well I don't know if he ever technically left town, but he's making his presence known again. A few months ago, Azami ran away from him-"

"Azami?" Tadao interrupted.

"His 'com," Junji clarified. Tadao nodded, now remembering the name.

"Anyway, she ran away from him, and she eventually ended up finding Minako and me and staying with us. But Fumio wants her back, he's been putting up flyers around and near campus."

"And I take it you don't intend to let him have her," Tadao deduced.

"Right, but if he finds out where she is, he'll be able to take her by force of law."

"I wish I could help you, Junji-kun, but I've got issues of my own to deal with," his fellow student said. "I'm planning to continue my studies abroad, in America. I've got to get all of my stuff ready because I'm moving at the end of the month."

"America?" Junji echoed in disbelief.

"Yep," Tadao confirmed. "I'll be transferring to a university in California. It was my parents' idea, they think I'll have better opportunities over there."

"But Tadao-san, you can't leave! Aside from Hitomi-chan, you're practically my only friend here, especially since-"

"Don't try to talk me out of it," Tadao cut him off. "The decision has already been made. I'm sorry, Junji-kun."

"You shouldn't let your parents push you around like this," Junji said, paying no heed to his friend's words. "You're a grown man!"

"No one is forcing me to do this," Tadao replied. "In fact, I'm looking forward to it. I've always wanted to see Hollywood."

Junji frowned, realizing that there would be no discouraging his peripatetic friend.

"Hey, cheer up," Tadao said, playfully punching Junji on the shoulder. "We can still e-mail each other, not to mention video chat. That is, if my ancient terminal keeps working. I really need to upgrade that thing. While I'm at it, I'm thinking of getting a persocom, too."

"Would you treat her with kindness?" Junji asked.

"What?"

"The persocom."

"Oh... sure, I guess. I certainly wouldn't exploit her like that asshole Fumio."

Suddenly Junji had an idea. It was a long shot, but it was still worth trying.

"Tadao-san, I have something I'd like to talk to you about..."

* * *

Meanwhile, Minako was conducting another therapy session with Azami. Not only was it good for her, it seemed to help get her mind off of Fumio's flyers. Just then, there was a knock on the door. Azami quickly made herself scarce, while Minako went to answer it.

The green-haired girl jumped slightly once she saw who it was, but she quickly regained her composure. After all, this wasn't entirely unexpected - she had thought he might pay them a visit.

"Is Junji here?" Fumio asked. He was sporting a scratchy beard now, and looked as if he hadn't combed his hair or changed his clothes in a while.

"No, he has classes today," Minako replied. "Shouldn't you be attending the lectures too? Oh, that's right, you were expelled. So much for your future," she added, smirking devilishly. Fumio glared at her, but continued calmly.

"I was wondering if he had seen Azami. I'm looking for her."

"What happened?" Minako asked, feigning ignorance.

"She took off one night... it was a while ago, but I was too busy looking for a job to worry about finding her. I only recently found employment again, so now I'm looking to take back what's mine."

"She ran away from you, hmm? I'm not surprised, I would do the same thing. As would anyone else with a sense of decency, I'd imagine. What's your job, by the way? Professional pimp? No, can't be, you couldn't even handle that as an amateur. Besides, I'd think you'd be making enough money in that line of work to at least make yourself look presentable. Maybe you're plying the other side of the trade, as a male prostitute? Although I can't imagine there would be much demand for your services." Minako's smirk was now approaching trollface proportions.

"You listen here, you impertinent little-" Fumio began, raising his hand to strike her, but at the last second he stopped himself.

_'Something's wrong here_,' he thought. '_She's deliberately trying to provoke me - she must want me to lose my temper and attack her. I bet she's recording this whole thing, waiting to push me over the edge so she can contact the police and charge me with breaking and entering or something. Devious piece of junk. Well, I'm not going to give her the satisfaction_.'

He slowly lowered his hand, and asked in a resigned voice, "Please just tell me if you've seen or heard anything."

"Nope, sorry," Minako answered, frowning. "Now get lost." She slammed the door in his face and locked it for good measure. She then waited until she heard Fumio's footsteps receding down the hall towards the stairway.

"Who was that, Minako-san?" Azami asked, poking her head out from the bathroom area. "And why did you slam the door so hard?"

"Just a salesman," Minako lied. "I kindly informed him to go back outside and read the 'no solicitors' sign on the front of the dorm." Azami chuckled slightly at this, which brought a smile to Minako's face. She obviously couldn't let the traumatized little persocom know how close she had gotten to her greatest fear.

* * *

They resumed the therapy session, and a few hours later there was another knock on the door. Minako went to check, hoping it wasn't Fumio again (although she have a slight desire for it to be him - maybe this time she would be able to anger him enough for him to snap and he could be arrested, after all he couldn't exactly take Azami back if he was in jail). However, it turned out to be Junji, as well as another young man Minako didn't recognize.

"You must be Minako-san," the man said, extending his arm to offer a handshake. Minako accepted. "Junji-san has told me a lot about you."

"I see," the green-haired persocom replied, uncertain. "And you are?"

"Allow me to introduce my friend, Arai Tadao. We haven't seen each other that much over the past few months, though, and he's moving to America soon."

"Pleased to meet you, Tadao-san," Minako said, bowing politely. He mimicked the gesture.

'_Unusually respectful for a human addressing a persocom_,' Minako thought. _'He seems like a nice guy - at least on first impression_.'

"May we come in?" Tadao asked.

"Oh sure," Minako said, feeling a bit embarrassed at zoning out there for a second. "Just be careful around Azami-chan, she's very shy."

Minako normally wouldn't have let a stranger into the room, especially considering that they might know about the reward money being offered for Azami, but if Junji had brought this Tadao here, he must trust him, and Minako trusted his judgement.

"Azami-chan, I'm home!" Junji called out. "And I've brought someone who wants to meet you. Don't worry, he's a friend."

A short, blonde head of hair poked out from behind the partition once again. She inspected the newcomer carefully, and after a few seconds she haltingly approached him.

"H-hello... My name is Azami," she said shyly, giving a polite bow.

"Arai Tadao," the boy replied, bowing in turn. "Junji told me what happened to you, Azami-chan... it must have been awful. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone else you're here."

Azami smiled. "Thank you, Tadao-san."

"Actually, the reason I brought Tadao-san here was so he could meet Azami-chan," Junji explained. A flash of understanding lit up Minako's eyes.

"I see, you're thinking that if they get along, then when he moves to America-"

"He can take her with him," Junji finished for her. "That way she'll be beyond Fumio's grasp for good."

"America?" Azami repeated, cocking her head to the side. She wasn't quite sure about this idea.


	23. Chapter 23

**Author's note: Sorry for the long update delay, but I had a serious case of writer's block. I hope I can at least somewhat compensate for it with this extra-long chapter (well, extra-long by my standards, anyway). As usual, thanks to all my reviewers, I hope you haven't given up on the story.**

* * *

"You don't have to decide right now if you don't want to," Tadao said. "Junji-san just suggested it as an option."

Azami shrunk back slightly and her face adopted a harsher expression.

"How do I know you won't mistreat me like Fumio-san did?" She exclaimed.

"Whoa, calm down!" Tadao replied, his hands in a disarming posture. "I wouldn't do something like that!"

The blonde 'com still looked skeptical. "I remember seeing you on campus school several times, even once or twice where Fumio held his... auctions," she spoke the last word with a note of disgust.

"I didn't participate in any of that stuff!" Tadao pleaded defensively.

"Nor did you do anything to try to stop them," Azami countered.

Tadao rubbed the back of his head and chuckled nervously. "Well... I... uh..."

Minako spoke up for him now. "Azami-chan, you're being unfair. Like most humans-" she spared a sideways glance at Junji, "he didn't know any better back then. I'm sure now that he understands that we have emotions and can feel pain, and he wouldn't make the same choice if given the opportunity."

"That's right," Tadao interjected. "I won't let anyone do anything to hurt you, I promise."

Azami slowly walked over to him and looked him in the eyes. He met her gaze, trying not to show any nervousness.

"You seem trustworthy, but I really don't know you well enough." She finally said, looking away.

"Well you only have 3 weeks to make a decision, or else I'll have to leave without you," Tadao replied.

"Hey, maybe Azami-chan could go and stay with Tadao-san for now, that way she could get to know him and make her decision before he moves." Junji suggested.

"I could use someone to help me pack," Tadao mused. "That is, if you're interested."

The short persocom looked up and Junji and Minako, then hesitantly walked over to Tadao. "Okay, I guess I could give it a try."

"Let's just make a few things clear," Minako said, pointing her index finger at Tadao, (somewhat menacingly, he thought). "I spoke up for you, so I expect you to hold up your end of the agreement. Azami-chan and I will keep in contact via e-mail every day, so if you don't take good care of her I'll know. And you have to make sure not to let her be seen in public, in case someone tries to turn her in."

"I got it, I got it!" Tadao exclaimed, adopting the same defensive posture as he did earlier. "I'm confused about something though," he said, trying to defuse the tension.

"What's that?" Junji asked.

"Well, from what I know about persocoms, couldn't Fumio-san just use a terminal to access Azami-chan remotely? Then he'd be able to find her location, and he could shut her down and go retrieve her."

"I was afraid he would try that during the first few days after I ran away," Azami said, "but he never did."

"It's probably because he never bothered to write down or memorize her IP address," Minako offered. "Without that, he would have no way to connect with her."

"Lucky for us he does seem like the kind of guy to forget something like that," Junji chuckled. Minako rolled her eyes.

"This coming from the guy who needed to be reminded to tell me your mobile number?"

They all burst into laughter at that, even Azami started giggling. It was heartwarming to see her able to enjoy herself again.

* * *

When they were finally ready, Junji dug into his closet and pulled out an old wool blend jacket with a hood, which he handed over to Azami. The blonde persocom slipped it on, pulling the hood down to cover her face.

"This should serve as a good enough disguise to get her safely to my dorm," Tadao said. He held out his hand and she gently took it, and they walked out into the hallway.

"Remember to e-mail me every day and tell me how you're doing," Minako reminded her. Azami nodded, a smile just barely visible below the fold of cloth draped over her head.

"I hope we did the right thing," Junji murmured as he watched them get into Tadao's car and drive off.

"Well he's not making her ride in the trunk, that's a good sign," Minako said teasingly. Junji chuckled.

* * *

Watanabe Fumio muttered under his breath as he browsed some local event listings in an internet cafe. He had just gotten off work an hour ago, and was still no closer to tracking down his runaway persocom. Suddenly, something caught his eyes as he scrolled down the page.

**Persocom Rights Demonstration**

** This Sunday, 9 AM - 3 PM, in front of Kyoto City Hall**

** Sponsored by the Kyoto Society for Persocom Equality**

"Hmph, how ridiculous," he snorted in derision. Out of curiosity, though, he clicked on the link, and was redirected to a more detailed announcement. Scrolling down, he found a link to the group's website.

Chuckling at what he considered to be a nonsensical waste of time, he suddenly stopped when he noticed one of the group's photos. There, standing right at the front of a large crowd of humans and persocoms, was a very familiar green-haired 'com. He glared at the smug smirk on her face, as she made a cheesy "V for victory" sign with her right hand. It was as if she was mocking him!

The last rational part of Fumio's brain suddenly shut down. He was sure that Minako not only knew where Azami was, but was deliberately hiding it from him, _just to piss him off!_ He audibly hissed in barely-restrained anger, causing several of the cafe's other patrons to give him odd looks.

He countered with an irritated glare, then logged off the computer and left the establishment. If that obnoxious green-haired bitch was going to be at this protest, then he was going to be there too. And she was going to be sorry she had ever crossed him.

* * *

**Sunday**

Junji groaned in irritation as he sat at the breakfast table. He had been up late last night working on a psychology paper, and had only had about four hours of sleep before being awoken by Minako. His eyelids started to droop, but the sound of fingers snapping inches away from his face brought him back to full awareness.

"Hello? Earth to Junji! The protest starts in 31 minutes, 56.7 seconds!" Minako exclaimed.

"I never should have agreed to this..." the college student grumbled.

"Hey, I told you to go to bed early last night, but you were the one who insisted on staying up until four AM," the persocom countered.

"What other choice did I have? The paper is due the day after tomorrow and I was barely halfway done with it!"

"You need to learn to budget your time more effectively," she chided him.

"Easy for you to say! You probably have a program or something for that."

"Yes, but that's no excuse not to work on it."

Junji realized he wasn't going to win this argument, so he changed topics.

"By the way, you did manage to convince Ryuhei, didn't you?"

The leader of the persocom rights group had been inquiring about what had happened to the frightened 'com that had come to him for shelter that one night, and Minako had eventually been persuaded to tell him the whole story. Upon learning that Azami and Tadao were sympathetic to the cause of persocom equality, he had started badgering Minako to get them to come to the rally. Obviously Minako wasn't going to allow such a thing - Azami had to lay low until Tadao took her overseas, and showing up at a large public event like this would be the last thing she would want. Still, Ryuhei hadn't quite seemed to get it.

Speaking of Azami, the short blonde 'com had been e-mailing Minako like she promised, and, while she was still a bit apprehensive about Tadao, she was clearly warming up to him, which was a good sign.

"Yeah, I eventually talked him down," the elf-eared 'com answered. "He gave me the whole _'you're undermining our cause, every person counts_,' routine, but I politely pointed out that putting Azami-chan at risk just to increase our public image was a pretty vile thing to even suggest. He then tried to say that she should come out of principle, to show she isn't afraid. Of course I told him that in this case she has something to legitimately be afraid of. Finally he tried to argue that there was a very low chance that Fumio would actually show up. I had to remind him that there would be media coverage of the event, and Fumio might notice Azami from any pictures or videos. After I finished demolishing all of his flimsy arguments, he finally gave in, although he wasn't that happy about it."

Junji was smirking throughout the entire story, and just had to laugh out loud now. "Hah, I would have liked to see that. Serves that asshole right."

Minako's expression changed to a scowl. "You shouldn't be so harsh on him, Junji-san. True, he was wrong this time, but he's had a lot of great ideas, and has done an excellent job of running the group."

"He was willing to put Azami-chan in danger just to further his own agenda." Junji replied.

"I don't think it was like that," Minako countered. "Ryuhei-san is just insensitive about some things because he hasn't endured much discrimination himself. The human who purchased him always treated him fairly and never forced him to do anything against his will. In fact, that's one of the reasons I admire him, he's willing to fight for our rights even though the problem hasn't personally effected him that much."

"Or maybe he doesn't really care and is just doing it to feed his own ego," Junji muttered.

"Stop being so cynical," Minako said, taking a bowl of soggy, half-eaten cereal off of the table.

"Hey, I'm not finished with that!" Junji objected.

"You are now," The persocom replied, draining the milk from the bowl and pouring the uneaten cereal into the garbage disposal. "Come on, we're going to be late!"

"I'm still hungry," Junji pouted.

"You should have eaten faster then. Now let's get moving!"

* * *

When they arrived, there were people already assembling in the courtyard. Junji estimated about two dozen (and Minako counted precisely twenty-seven). To Junji's inevitable dismay, Ryuhei was among them. The psychology student decided to just avoid the arrogant persocom as best as he could.

He got out of the car and followed Minako to meet up with the others. He was feeling rather self-conscious, as he didn't know many of these people. As if she was picking up on his thoughts, Minako offered to introduce him to some of her friends.

"Junji-san, this is Amethyst-san," she said, gesturing towards a tall persocom with cat ears and long, black hair.

"Pleased to meet you," Junji bowed politely, although he was a little confused by this 'com's exotic-sounding name and appearance. Her features were clearly European, as opposed to the Asian look of most 'coms in Japan, and she was wearing an elegant black dress in the gothic lolita style.

"Likewise," she said, bowing. "You're not as tall as I expected." she giggled a bit, covering her mouth with her hand as she did so.

'_Why does everyone always say that_?' Junji thought, rolling his eyes. Still, he was curious about this girl.

"Um, Amethyst-san, if you don't mind me asking... please don't be offended or anything, but I notice you don't really look like most other persocoms I've seen."

"Don't worry, I get this question all the time. I was actually built in Austria," she explained. "My owner had me imported, he had to pay quite a lot. I'm still not sure why he went to all the trouble, he's just eccentric like that I guess."

"Does he also make you dress like that?" Junji asked, still a bit perplexed by her wardrobe choice.

"No, I like dressing this way. I think it gives me class," she said, laughing, as she twirled around, showing off her dress.

"You speak Japanese incredibly well," Junji blurted out, before realizing what he had said.

_'Junji you idiot! Of course she speaks perfect Japanese, she's a persocom!_' He mentally scolded himself.

Amethyst just laughed. "I don't just speak it, I even think in Japanese. Part of the cost my owner paid for me included the installation of a Japanese OS."

"So, are you here for the protest?" Junji asked, then quickly realized that question was even stupider than what he had previously said.

"No, I just happened to be taking a walk here and now by complete and utter coincidence," she replied in a deadpan tone, then started giggling again. Minako rolled her eyes.

"Come on Junji, let's go somewhere else before you say any more stupid things," she said, laughing despite herself.

* * *

"I'm not really good with these large public gatherings, especially featuring so many people I don't know," he told her as they walked hand-in-hand.

"Just loosen up and relax, there's nothing to be embarrassed about," the green-haired girl said. "It's not like you have to-" she paused, a look of anger and disgust crossing her features, as her sky-blue eyes focused on a gathering of about half a dozen people across the street, who were verbally harassing some of the PRA group.

"Counter-protesters," Minako muttered irately. "I should have expected a few bigots who don't like our message to show up."

Junji looked closer, and to his surprise he recognized one of the small group - Miho Katsura, the persocom-hating girl who had once attacked Minako withou provocation. He immediately became livid, his expression of anger matching his girlfriend's.

"Heh, look who it is," Miho snarled at them. "I didn't expect you to show your face in public anymore, Takeda."

"What the hell are you talking about? It's not like I haven't stopped coming to class or anything."

Before Miho could fire off a retort, an older man standing next to her joined the conversation.

"So this is the guy you told me about Miho-chan?" The man looked at Junji and Minako with an expression that somehow combined pity and derision. "You probably believe that machine really cares about you, don't you?" He asked.

"How are you so sure she doesn't?" Junji replied.

"Consider this," the man began. "A persocom may seem like it is able to converse intelligently, but that's only an illusion. Imagine that a person who understands only Japanese or some other language is in a room with instructions on how to manually run a program designed to converse in Chinese..."

Junji tried to hide a smile. Whatever Katsura had told this guy, she had obviously left out the fact that he was a psychology major, and was intimately familiar with this flawed argument (and its many refutations) already.

Minako had apparently picked up on his expression, as she winked subtly to him, indicating that she would deal with it. Junji nodded almost imperceptibly in reply - it would make more of an impact for Minako to refute the argument herself.

"So you would be receiving input and giving intelligent output in Chinese without actually understanding what you were saying, meaning a machine doesn't actually understand anything and is just running programs." The man finished.

"You honestly think I haven't heard that one before?" Minako answered. "Why don't you consider this. Let's say that right now, there's an alien somewhere in space," she pointed up at the sky for dramatic effect, "who has a device that can scan your brain precisely, down to each individual neuron and synapse. This alien is approaching you at nearly the speed of light. As per the theory of relativity, he would observe the activity of your brain occurring trillions of times slower than it does from our perspective. At this speed, your thought processes will appear as a discrete pattern of individual synaptic firing events. Any such pattern can be replicated with a properly-programmed Turing machine. So then what the alien observes will be the same as the Chinese room - a machine, your brain, executing a deterministic program. And since the theory of relativity specifies that the laws of physics are the same in all inertial reference frames, then either you're not really self-aware at all, or the entire Chinese room thought experiment is bunk."

Junji was impressed. He personally wasn't much of a physics person, so this particular rebuttal wasn't one he was familiar with, but it seemed to make sense. The counter-protesting man, on the other hand, was at a loss for words.

"Well, um, that is... I, uh... I'll get back to you on that," was all he managed to get out.

Miho glared at Minako again, but eventually turned and walked away, but not before making a rude gesture, which the green-haired persocom was quick to reciprocate.

"Did you think of that relativity thing yourself?" Junji asked, as the two of them went to rejoin the crowd.

"Unfortunately no, I found the concept referenced on a website a few months ago."

"Well it certainly shut them up," Junji laughed.

"Good arguments tend to do that," Minako concurred.

They then noticed some activity towards the front of the crowd.

"It must be time for Ryuhei to give his speech," Minako noted. Junji groaned.

"You don't have to listen to it if you don't want to," she said.

"Thanks," he said with relief. "Call me on my mobile when you want to find me." He walked off to see if anything else was going on while Minako joined the crowd around a makeshift stage that had been set up at the front of the courtyard.

* * *

The speech itself was forgettable, and basically consisted of Ryuhei repeating several popular PRA talking points and relating a few anecdotes to support them. Still, Minako thought it was well-spoken. After the clapping had subsided, she started thinking about how Junji had been dragged here (mostly) against his will and probably wasn't having a very good time. She decided she would surprise him by buying him something to eat. Activating her internal GPS, she quickly located an ice cream shop less than a block from her current position. She left the courtyard and began heading down a narrow alley, paying little attention to her surroundings. This soon proved to be a terrible mistake.

Without warning, a humanoid shadow jumped at her, barely registering in her peripheral vision. The next thing she knew, she found herself immobilized in a submission hold. Before she could cry out, she felt a USB drive being roughly inserted into a port behind her ear.

**WARNING: INVASIVE PROGRAM DETECTED**

**ATTEMPTING PURGE...**

**PURGE FAILED. REROUTE EXEMPTION AT 2399 PHYSCONT DRIVER**

**MOTOR CONTROL DISABLED**

And just like that, she could no longer move. She began to panic, and tried to access her internet connection to call for help, but the attack program wasn't done yet.

**WARNING: INVASIVE PROGRAM HAS PENETRATED CPU CORE**

**FATAL ERROR ON LINE 347692875476987124**

**AUTO-SHUTDOWN ENGAGED**

And she blacked out.


	24. Chapter 24

After parting ways with Minako, Junji soon struck up a conversation with two other people at the rally. He generally wasn't very good with strangers, but this couple appeared friendly enough, and Junji seemed to recognize a bit of Minako and himself in them. One was a male college student, slightly younger than Junji himself, the other was a brown-haired female persocom with long, pointed ears.

"I'd really like to meet your girlfriend, she sounds nice," the young man said.

"She'll be meeting up with me after she's finished listening to Ryuhei-san's speech," Junji explained. "I'm not exactly on good terms with him..." he chuckled slightly, betraying a bit of nervousness.

"The last speech ended 21 minutes, 18 seconds ago," the persocom objected, looking confused.

"What?" Junji immediately took out his mobile phone and checked its digital clock. "Dammit, I must have completely lost track of time. I've got to go meet up with her."

"That's okay, it was nice to meet you, Junji-san," the younger man said, he and his persocom waving goodbye as Junji retreated into the crowd.

"Yeah, same here Ueda-san, Yumi-chan," Junji reciprocated.

* * *

As he approached the stage, he noticed that many people were already leaving. The rally itself was only scheduled to run for another 10 minutes or so... Minako should have called him by now. Scanning the dispersing crowd, he didn't notice the persocom's distinctive sherbet-green hair anywhere.

"Where did she go?" The psychology student muttered to himself. After a second or two of worrying, he slapped his forehead, remembering something simple. Navigating through a few menus on his mobile, he selected Minako's number from a saved list and sent a call.

He began to grow worried as nothing seemed to happen. Minako always picked up immediately! Then he saw an error message that filled him with a sense of dread.

**The number you have dialed cannot be reached at this time. Please redial and try again.**

For a split second he hoped he had just mistyped the number, before recalling that he had used an automatic dial from a preset he had saved.

Panic began to grip Junji. What if something had happened to Minako? What if she was hurt? He immediately recalled the time she had been trapped in the car during the flood. The weather was perfectly calm today, but any one of a thousand other terrible things could have happened to her.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by one of the last people he wanted to talk to at the moment.

"Ah, greetings Junji-san," Ryuhei beckoned him over from where he was packing up several piles of pamphlets that no one had bothered to take. "Minako-chan told me you were here, although I half-suspected that she was just covering for you while you stayed home. You didn't arrive just now, only to prove to me that you actually showed up, did you?" he laughed.

Ignoring the arrogant 'com's joke, Junji dashed over to him and grabbed him by the shoulders. "You saw Minako? Where is she?" He asked desperately.

"Whoa, what's wrong? Did something happen?" Ryuhei looked confused.

"Just tell me if you saw her!" Junji blurted out, his volume causing several people nearby to turn and stare.

"Yeah, we chatted a bit after I finished my first speech, then she left in that direction," Ryuhei pointed towards a back alley. "I haven't seen her since. I thought she was with you."

Junji immediately rushed off in the direction the male 'com had indicated, not even bothering to thank him for the information. Before he had gotten three meters, though, Ryuhei called out "Wait!"

Junji paused, looking back at Ryuhei impatiently.

"Did something happen to her? Is she okay?" he asked, surprising Junji with what seemed to be a note of genuine concern in his voice.

"I don't know!" the human boy replied. "I haven't seen her for hours, she was supposed to call me, and her number can't be reached!"

"Let me try," Ryuhei said, his face going blank as his eyes starting to flash with white streaks of light. A few seconds later, his expression turned perplexed. "You're right - I can't connect."

"I told you - wait," Junji paused. "She gave you her number?"

"This is no time to get jealous!" Ryuhei objected. "Come on, I'll help you look for her!"

Junji gave him a skeptical stare. "Don't you have a rally to wrap up?"

"Do you want my help or not?" The persocom replied, annoyed.

"Whatever, come on then," Junji gestured for Ryuhei to follow him, grudgingly accepting his help. He still didn't like the guy, but that took a back seat to the fact that Minako might be in danger.

* * *

As the two ran off towards the alley, they were intercepted by a familiar girl.

"Ryuhei-kun, Junji-san! What's going on?" Amethyst asked. The two quickly filled her in.

"That's awful!" The cat-eared 'com said, after the situation was explained to her. "I hope Minako-san is okay!"

"Do you want to help us look for her?" Junji asked. "We could use all the help we can get."

Amethyst nodded in enthusiasm and the three set out.

After frantically searching the alley and the surrounding area for over half an hour, Junji was exhausted. "This is useless, there's no sign of her anywhere," he said, leaning on a dumpster to catch his breath. "Are you sure you saw her head in this direction?"

"Yes, I can replay the video footage if you need convincing," Ryuhei replied, his tone containing a slight tinge of sarcasm.

"Maybe we had better-"

"Hey! Look what I found!" Amethyst interrupted Junji, gesturing for the boys to come over and look at something near the other end of the alley.

The catgirl-com held something between her thumb and index finger. At first Junji couldn't make out what it was, but after squinting he recognized it: A long strand of bright, green hair.

"Is that Minako's?" Junji asked, excited to have finally found a clue.

"Hue and length indicate a 97.698% probability of a match," Amethyst replied.

"A persocom's hair doesn't just fall out," Ryuhei chimed in. "It must have been dislodged violently."

Junji gulped at the word '_violently_'. Things were not looking good.

"Could we dust it for fingerprints or something?" Junji blurted out, failing to give any thought to the plausibility of what he had just said.

"On a single strand of hair?" Ryuhei voiced the obvious objection.

"Oh yeah... well what about DNA samples? There might be, like, skin cells on it or something."

"Even if there are, we can hardly cross-reference them with the entire population of Kyoto," Amethyst pointed out. "I think we should look for a motive. Is there anyone who might want to kidnap Minako-san?"

Junji's expression was blank for a split second, but then his eyes narrowed, and the name escaped his lips with a guttural growl. "Fumio..."

* * *

The first thing Minako noticed upon regaining consciousness was that the program that had incapacitated her was still running in the background, locking down her motor functions and most of her sensory input. She could only tell that she was lying on her back, staring upwards at a nondescript ceiling.

She tried to terminate the invasive process, but it was stubborn and wouldn't respond to her commands. She thought for a few milliseconds, then had an idea. She immediately began activating as many memory-intensive programs as possible, including applications that came pre-installed on her but she had never had the need to use before. Everything from a chess program (which she set to attempt to calculate a forced checkmate from the initial game position) to a 3D rendering environment (in which she tried to simulate all of Kyoto in real-time, down to a resolution of 6 micrometers). Soon her processors were using up so much memory that they threatened to crash, which activated a failsafe that automatically shut down the most memory-intensive programs she was running. A nanosecond before it activated, she ceased running most of the programs she had just started, causing the failsafe to target and deactivate the foreign application.

The rest of her senses returned, and she found herself laying on a single bed. She could move now, but it wasn't much help, as, in addition to the program, her mysterious assailant had also physically restrained her arms and legs with some kind of rope and tied them to the bedposts. She struggled for a few seconds, but soon realized the restraints were too tight to escape from. She soon had a new problem as well - the attack program was trying to reassert itself. She was able to prevent it from locking down her movements and senses again, but it was still blocking her from accessing the internet. The USB stick that contained the offending software was still plugged into the side of her head, and she couldn't exactly just reach out and unplug it. However, there was one thing she could try. Carefully twisting her neck so that the USB stick became lodged between her head and one of her bound arms, she applied as much pressure as she could until it snapped off, falling onto the bed. A warning message appeared, informing her that she had done some minor damage to her USB drive with that stunt, but that was a small price to pay. She tried once again to access the net, but to her surprise she still couldn't. There was some kind of interference blocking her signal.

Before she had further time to ponder this, she was startled by the sound of slow, deliberate clapping coming from somewhere beyond the room.

The door opened and Minako glared in abject hatred at the man who stepped inside.

"You're pretty resourceful. Good thing I thought ahead," Fumio said, sneering with conceit. "Tying you up was simple enough, but I had to look up a tutorial to turn my terminal into a makeshift wifi jammer. Of course the most difficult part was obtaining that attack program, I had to pay quite a bit and go through some rather shady channels, but seeing you like this makes it all worth it."

"Let me go!" The elf-eared persocom shouted, futily struggling against her bonds again. "You won't get away with this!"

"I think I already did," Fumio said, laughing.

Minako frowned, realizing he was right. If she couldn't find a way to free herself or get a message out, then there would be nothing linking Fumio to her disappearance. Even if Junji and the others suspected his involvement, they wouldn't be able to prove anything, and they couldn't just barge into his house without a search warrant from the police. There was also her more immediately predicament to be concerned with.

"What are you going to do with me?" She asked, trying to be defiant but failing to camouflage her fear.

"That depends." Fumio stepped closer, clearly enjoying this. "Are you going to tell me where Azami is?"

"What makes you think I know?" she spat.

"Oh come now," he smiled sadistically. "I think we both know you're not fooling anyone."

"Even if I did know where she was, I would never tell you, asshole!"

"Fine, if you want to be that way," he stepped back out of the room and quickly returned, brandishing a sledgehammer. "I'll simply smash you into the scrap you are, and then make sure to deposit your remains somewhere where your boyfriend will be sure to find them."

* * *

"Tadao-san, I'm worried," Azami said, nervously pacing back and forth across the dorm room.

"What's wrong?" The college student asked, as he took a break from packing some textbooks.

"It's Minako-san, I e-mailed her over an hour ago and she hasn't replied yet."

"An hour isn't that long," Tadao replied.

"Maybe not for a human, but Minako-san always replies to my e-mails within a minute or two at most!"

"I'm sure it's nothing," Tadao tried to reassure her. "Maybe she just-" Before he could finish, his phone rang. He picked it up and heard the voice of a panicked Junji.

Junji quickly explained the situation to Tadao. He told her not to tell Azami as he didn't want to scare her, but he forgot about the persocom's enhanced hearing. She heard the whole thing, and made a sudden decision, sneaking out of the dorm while Tadao was still on the phone.

Once she was sure she was far enough away that Tadao wouldn't be able to easily find her, she accessed her memory and opened a picture of Fumio's flyer. Trembling, she activated her phone software and dialed the number that was printed on the paper.

* * *

Fumio put down the sledgehammer in annoyance as he heard his phone ring.

"I'll be right back," he told his captive. "Don't go anywhere!" He chuckled maliciously. He walked over to the kitchen of his small apartment and picked up the phone, intending to dismiss whoever was on the line quickly and then return to threatening Minako. He immediately abandoned this thought once he heard the voice on the other end.

"Azami? Is that you?"

"Y-yes... Fumio-san..." she answered, her voice as meek as it had ever been. "Did you kidnap M-Minako-san?"

Fumio thought for a bit before answering. There was no way she could have the police monitoring the call, because they would have been obligated by law to return Azami to him if they found her. Junji and his friends might be listening in, but even if they recorded him admitting to stealing Minako, they couldn't turn him in without revealing that they had concealed Azami from him. He decided to admit to his crime and see what would happen.

"So what if I did?"

"Please don't hurt her!" Azami pleaded.

"No promises... unless, of course, you're willing to turn yourself in."

There was a lingering pause, before Azami's voice came through again, barely audible this time.

"O-okay... I'll trade myself for Minako-san..."


	25. Chapter 25

"What do you mean, she's gone?" Junji practically screamed into the phone.

"I don't know, she was here just a minute ago!" Tadao replied. "She was talking about how Minako hadn't answered her e-mail, then you called and I got distracted, and now she's nowhere to be seen!"

"She knows she's not supposed to leave your dorm room unless it's absolutely necessary, right?" Junji said, his sense of panic escalating. If it wasn't bad enough that Minako had been kidnapped, now Azami was in danger, too! Suddenly Junji felt a slight tap on his shoulder.

"I hate to interrupt, but I have a theory as to what happened," Ryuhei interjected. "You probably forgot that we persocoms have much more sensitive ears than you humans do. Azami-chan could have easily heard everything you told Tadao-san. Maybe she went off to try to rescue Minako-san herself."

"She wouldn't do that!" Junji objected. "She's terrified of Fumio-san!"

"Maybe, but if she feels a strong enough loyalty to Minako-san she might be able to overcome her fear," Amethyst suggested.

Junji's face paled, and he quickly covered it with both hands after pocketing his mobile. "It's all my fault..." he whispered. "I promised to protect Azami-chan, but now she's in danger because of me..."

"Hey, snap out of it!" Ryuhei shouted, smacking Junji lightly on the back of his head. "It's not anyone's fault, except for this Fumio creep. And if we hurry, we can reach his place before Azami-chan does!"

"Just one problem," The human boy countered. "I don't know where he lives."

"Do you know his phone number or e-mail address?" Amethyst asked. "We might be able to find his location from one of those."

"Fumio-san put up flyers about Azami-chan, they had his contact info on them," Junji recalled.

"Well, what was the number?" Fumio asked.

"You expect me to remember? It was weeks ago!"

Fumio glared at Junji, then sighed as his expression softened. "You humans... sometimes I'm surprised you can remember to put one foot in front of the other when walking."

"Hey, excuse me for not having a holographic memory!"

"Could we maybe find another one of these flyers?" Amethyst offered, temporarily curtailing the conflict.

"Yeah, if we're lucky some of them will still be up in the neighborhood around my dorm building, come on!" Junji ran off in the direction of his car, with the other two in close pursuit.

* * *

Minako was grateful when Fumio left to answer the phone, dropping the sledgehammer as he exited the room. Still, she knew it would only buy her a small amount of time. She tried yet again to wriggle free from her bonds, but they held fast. She eyed the sledgehammer on the floor, thinking back to his threat. Would he actually go through with it? She quickly concluded that he would - Fumio had shown absolutely no regard for the rights of persocoms, and would likely have no qualms about destroying one.

As macabre as the idea was, she soon found herself running simulations of her own destruction. Factoring in Fumio's height, weight, and muscle mass, the sledgehammer's mass and balance, the resistance and elastic deformation of the bed, her own body's resilience, and Fumio's probable knowledge of persocom components and systems, she calculated a 94.5678% probability that such an attack would cause irreparable damage to her CPU - meaning it would be impossible to retrieve her consciousness.

'_Does that mean... I'm going to die?_' she wondered. Minako had never really thought about death before - as a machine, she supposed she had believed she was functionally immortal. Even if her body's components broke down they could simply be replaced, and if worse came to worst she could upload her consciousness into a new body. But now, with her internet connection being jammed and a dangerous sociopath willing to reduce her to plastic and metal scrap, she faced the very real possibility of death.

Her reflections soon turned more philosophical. What happens to persocoms when they die? Is there an afterlife for machines? Or would her consciousness just cease to be? She accessed the limited files she had on religion - Junji and his family were ostensibly Buddhist, but not very observant. If Buddhism was true, would that mean she would be reincarnated? Or would she not even be considered to have a spirit that existed independently of her physical body? She had always had a strong belief in the idea that she was in every way equal to humans - so if they had souls she must have one too. However, in this dire situation, a sliver of doubt began to insinuate itself within her mind - what if she does have no soul? What if, when she dies, she will simply wink out of existence?

'_Well... it's not the worst thing that could happen,_' she rationalized. '_If I don't have a soul, then at least there's no possibility of going to any negative afterlife, such as the Hell of the Abrahamic faiths or the eastern Naraka. Maybe the atheists are right, and souls don't even exist. Not that that would be much comfort right now._'

She tried her best to stop dwelling on thoughts of death, but it was difficult - her mind worked so fast. Even though Fumio had only been gone for a few minutes, she had already spent the equivalent of hours ruminating on nearly every horrible scenario that entered her head.

She heard Fumio's footsteps approaching, so she became determined to make her last thoughts (if indeed they were her last) happy ones. She thought of all the good she had done - how she had inspired oppressed persocoms like Junko-chan, and the work she had accomplished to advance the cause of persocom equality. Even if she died here, her book would still be published - and weren't works by deceased creators supposed to sell more? Or did that only apply to artists? She chuckled inwardly at her attempt at morbid humor, then returned to more pleasant thoughts. She thought of the stars, and the beauty of the night sky, accessing many of the recordings she had taken of meteor showers and other celestial phenomena. And most of all, she thought of Junji... if only she had a chance to say goodbye to him...

However, when Fumio re-entered the room, something unexpected happened. Instead of picking up the sledgehammer, he carefully kicked it out of the way, and simply sneered at the bound 'com.

"It appears you're in luck," he said, the arrogant tone never leaving his voice. "I don't know how, but Azami somehow figured out that I have you prisoner, and she's offered to trade herself for you. Once I have her secured, I'll simply erase your memory of the last few hours and drop you off back where I found you."

"Is this some kind of trick?" The green-haired 'com inquired suspiciously. "How could Azami-chan possibly have found out?"

"Don't ask me, but that was her on the phone. She said she'll be arriving within the next ten minutes."

As if on cue, the doorbell rang.

"That should be her right now. Excuse me for a moment."

* * *

Fumio departed yet again, and soon returned, a familiar short, blonde 'com following behind him.

"Minako-chan!" Azami shouted, running over to the side of the bed. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

"Azami you idiot!" Minako shouted, causing the shorter persocom to jump back in shock. "You were supposed to stay away from him, no matter what!"

"B-but you were in danger!" She objected. "I had to do something! After all, you helped me so much-"

"How did you even find out about-"

"Ahem." Fumio cleared his throat loudly, interrupting the two 'coms. He turned an accusing eye on Minako. "So it appears you did know Azami's whereabouts after all. I never doubted it. By all rights I should destroy you anyway for keeping her from me, but I'll have less of a chance of being caught if I just erase your memory like I originally planned. But first, I have some other business to take care of. Come along, Azami."

"Y-yes..." She replied meekly, following him out of the room.

"No, Azami, don't! It's still not too late! You don't have to listen to him anymore!"

The elf-eared 'com's words were drowned out as Fumio slammed the door behind him, leading Azami down a short hallway to a room where he grabbed a portable terminal. "Here, connect with this."

"W-what are you going to do?" Azami asked nervously.

"Look up your IP address and then save it to a file here so I don't forget it again, for starters. I wanted to install a GPS tracking program but I couldn't afford a reliable one, so this will have to do for now."

The short persocom reluctantly complied, taking a cable out from a port in her ear and plugging it into the handheld computer. As Fumio copied and pasted her IP address to a text file, she noticed that the terminal was also running an unusual program she hadn't seen before, although she soon determined its function.

"There," Fumio said, detaching the cable as Azami retracted it back into her head. "Now to deal with your little friend." He unplugged the terminal from the power outlet and carried it with him back into the guest bedroom where Minako was held captive.

* * *

As he entered the room, he found Minako still staring at him, the look of anger never having faded from her eyes. He slowly walked over to the side of the bed, bending down until his face was only centimeters from her ear.

"I suggest you don't make this any more difficult than it has to be," he whispered, his mouth so close that she could feel his breath on the side of her head. "When this is over, you won't remember a thing, and Azami will be back where she belongs." He chuckled sinisterly, then picked up the USB stick that the green-haired girl had previously dislodged from her dataport.

"This should still be of use," he said, attempting to plug it back into the port. Minako twisted her head back and forth and from side to side, trying to avoid it, but Fumio grabbed her by the throat and held her in place as he plugged it in. Immediately Minako's eyes glazed over, flashing with streaks of light, before they went completely blank, and then closed.

"Minako-chan!" Azami called out in alarm.

"Shut up," Fumio replied harshly. "She'll be fine, I'm just making sure she's incapacitated while I edit her memory."

He took a cord from the portable terminal and plugged it into another port on the opposite side of the bound girl's head, then sat down on the foot of the bed and began typing on the terminal's keyboard.

After a few minutes it quickly grew apparent that Fumio was having some difficulty. He was constantly scowling and his keystrokes became progressively more violent. "Dammit, even in standby mode she's got some tough passive firewalls..." he muttered. "Maybe I should just smash her after all."

Before he could further pursue this course of action, he noticed that something was amiss. Glancing behind him, he saw that Azami had taken advantage of his change of focus and was just completing the process of untying the ropes that restrained Minako.

"**What do you think you're doing!**" Fumio roared, diving at the petite 'com. She yelped as he tackled her to the floor.

"_**I won't let you hurt Minako-san**_!" Azami screamed, as she directed a kick straight into his groin. Surprisingly, it had little effect.

Fumio grinned in triumph. Seeing Azami's puzzled expression, he offered an explanation. "I was actually anticipating Junji's 'com trying something like that, so before I ambushed her I decided to prepare myself. Of course you remember when I used to play union rugby, right? Luckily I still had some of my old equipment lying around."

Fumio's grin soon faded though, as his eyes drifted to an object in Azami's hand - the USB stick. If she had unplugged it from Minako, then-

"_**Get away from her!**_" A voice rang out from behind him. He rapidly turned around, which soon proved to be a costly mistake, as Minako jabbed him in the eyes with two fingers.

As he collapsed on the ground, screaming in pain and rage, Azami scrambled out from under him, and she and Minako ran out of the room.

"Thanks Minako-chan," the blonde 'com said, relieved.

"Don't mention it." She replied. "Next time maybe he'll realize that there's more than one vulnerable spot on his body."

"Here, the door is this way," Azami said as she escorted Minako down the halls. Just when it looked like they were home free, they heard Fumio's voice again.

"**Freeze! Don't take another step**!"

They whirled around to face their pursuer, whose eyes were still red and sore, but now he was holding a gun, and it was aimed directly at the two persocoms.


End file.
